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Thyrocervical trunk: anatomy, location and function

A short branch of the subclavian artery to the neck. It supplies the thyroid gland, neck muscles and scapular region.

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Structures

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Highlighted in the model: Thyrocervical trunk. Click any part to read about it, or switch off “Highlight topic” to see the whole body. 3D data: BodyParts3D, © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0; meshes simplified and recoloured. The model is an adult male.

Thyrocervical trunk at a glance

What it is
A short branch of the subclavian artery to the neck.
Location
It arises from the first part of the subclavian artery near the medial border of scalenus anterior and gives the inferior thyroid, suprascapular and transverse cervical arteries; the last two often arise separately from the subclavian.
Function
It supplies the thyroid gland, neck muscles and scapular region.
Body system
Cardiovascular · paired (left and right)
FMA ID
FMA4084 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)

Key facts

  • It is short, rarely more than a few millimetres long before branching.

Structures next to the thyrocervical trunk

The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:

References

  1. Foundational Model of Anatomy: Thyrocervical trunk (FMA4084). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
  2. OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §20.1 Structure and Function of Blood Vessels. Rice University, 2022.
  3. Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.

Related anatomy

Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.