Expansion
Some Ladies Find Occlusion Painful, So They Make Out
Mnemonic
“Some Anatomists Like Freaking Out Poor Medical Students”, from the bifurcation upwards:
- S - Superior thyroid
- A - Ascending pharyngeal
- L - Lingual
- F - Facial
- O - Occipital
- P - Posterior auricular
- M - Maxillary
- S - Superficial temporal
The last two are the terminal branches, arising within the parotid gland.
The internal carotid artery gives no branches in the neck at all, which is the single most reliable way to tell the two apart at operation.
Expansion
- S - Superior thyroid
- L - Lingual
- F - Facial
- O - Occipital
- P - Posterior auricular
- S - Superficial temporal (terminal)
- M - Maxillary (terminal)
- (Ascending pharyngeal, easily forgotten small branch)