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Ulnar artery: anatomy, location and function

The larger terminal branch of the brachial artery. It supplies the medial forearm and most of the hand.

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Highlighted in the model: Ulnar artery. 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.

Ulnar artery at a glance

What it is
The larger terminal branch of the brachial artery.
Location
It arises in the cubital fossa, passes deep to pronator teres and the superficial flexors, joins the ulnar nerve, enters the hand superficial to the flexor retinaculum through Guyon's canal and ends mainly as the superficial palmar arch.
Function
It supplies the medial forearm and most of the hand.
Body system
Cardiovascular · paired (left and right)
FMA ID
FMA22798 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)

Key facts

  • It gives the common interosseous artery.
  • Its pulse can be felt beside the flexor carpi ulnaris tendon at the wrist, though less easily than the radial pulse.

Clinical relevance

The Allen test checks that the ulnar artery can supply the hand before radial artery puncture.

Structures next to the ulnar artery

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

References

  1. Foundational Model of Anatomy: Ulnar artery (FMA22798). 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.