Posterior humeral circumflex artery

Artery: Posterior humeral circumflex artery
The axillary artery and its branches, including posterior humeral circumflex.
The scapular and circumflex arteries. (Posterior hum. circumflex labeled at center right.)
Latin	arteria circumflexa humeri posterior
Gray's	subject #149 589
Source	axillary artery

The posterior humeral circumflex artery (posterior circumflex artery, posterior circumflex humeral artery) arises from the axillary artery at the lower border of the subscapularis, and runs posteriorally with the axillary nerve through the quadrangular space.

It winds around the neck of the humerus and is distributed to the Deltoid muscle (aka deltoideus) and shoulder-joint, anastomosing with the anterior humeral circumflex and profunda brachii.

It feeds the teres minor and deltoid muscles.

Additional images

• 

  Suprascapular and axillary nerves of right side, seen from behind.

External links

• Duke Orthopedics posterior_humeral_circumflex_artery
• posterior+circumflex+humeral+artery at eMedicine Dictionary
• lesson3axillaryart&vein at The Anatomy Lesson by Wesley Norman (Georgetown University)

See also

• Anterior humeral circumflex artery

This article was originally based on an entry from a public domain edition of Gray's Anatomy. As such, some of the information contained within it may be outdated.

This cardiovascular system article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v d e