Topic Tuesday: Aortic Arch Anatomy

keyanazahiri
12 minutes ago
2 min read

Happy Spring everyone! Welcome back to another segment of our May series on cardiovascular anatomy. I was taught to think of the aorta as a highway system, stemming out of the heart and extending down to our legs, with exits at different levels of the body to make sure blood is getting to all of our organs. If you have been keeping up with our May blogs, you have already driven through the heart, aortic valve, aortic root, ascending aorta, and are now ready to enter the candy cane-shaped aortic arch. Refer to our previous blogs and the image below to reorient yourself to where we are at the arch now in relation to the rest of the aortic highway system.

Cleveland Clinic

When we enter our aortic arch, there are three different exits we can take, also known as the three great vessels: the brachiocephalic artery, left common carotid artery, and left subclavian artery. Our first exit, the brachiocephalic artery, splits into two different branches: the right subclavian artery, which supplies blood to your right arm, and the right common carotid artery, which travels up the right side of your neck to bring blood up into your brain. The next stop on the arch is the left common carotid artery, which extends up the left side of your neck to also supply blood to your brain. Our third great vessel and last major exit off the aortic arch is the left subclavian artery, which brings blood to your left arm. All of these vessels are carrying freshly oxygenated blood from the heart to support the function of different parts of your body.

Medicine Libre Texts

This concludes our brief review of the aortic arch! Make sure to tune in next week to continue down the descending aorta and into the abdominal aorta. As always, stay well and feel free to reach out with any questions.