Expansion
Try Swallowing Slowly
Mnemonic
“STAT”, for the four branches:
- S - Suprascapular artery
- T - Transverse cervical artery
- A - Ascending cervical artery
- T - inferior Thyroid artery
The inferior thyroid artery is the surgically important one: it runs with the recurrent laryngeal nerve, so it is ligated away from the gland to spare the nerve, the opposite of the rule for the superior thyroid artery.
“Superior artery, superior laryngeal nerve, tie it high; inferior artery, recurrent laryngeal nerve, tie it low.”
The trunk arises from the first part of the subclavian artery, medial to scalenus anterior, alongside the vertebral and internal thoracic arteries.
The suprascapular artery passes over the superior transverse scapular ligament while the suprascapular nerve passes under it, remembered as “the Army over the Bridge, the Navy under it”.
Expansion
- T - Transverse cervical artery
- S - Suprascapular artery
- Slowly - inferior thyroid artery