In today’s lecture and gross anatomy lab, we learned about the various bones, muscles, vessels and nerves of the neck. This Daily Doodle shows the contents that are encapsulated by the carotid sheath, a thick tube of connective tissue (gray). The carotid sheath wraps around the jugular vein (blue), the vagus nerve (yellow), and the common carotid artery (red). As the common carotid artery travels upwards, towards the head, it branches into the internal and external carotid arteries. The external carotid artery further branches into smaller arteries, including the:

– Superior thyroid artery
– Ascending pharyngeal artery
– Lingual artery
– Facial artery
– Occipital artery
– Posterior auricular artery
– Maxillary artery
– Superficial temporal artery

There are quite a few interesting mnemonics that can be used to remember all the branches…