 Hey everybody, Dr. O here. In this two part series, I'm going to walk you through all the major arteries and all the major veins. So a couple things first. Number one, this is really just a review of surface anatomy terms. If you remember back in the first unit, the surface anatomy terms like your arm is your brachium, your armpit is your axilla. If you remember those terms, you're going to know the names of almost all the blood vessels already. So that's pretty good news. Number two, most arteries run right with a corresponding vein. So once you know all of these arteries, you know the huge majority of the veins as well. So I know this can look really complicated, but just remember your medical terminology, remember your surface anatomy terms, and remember that arteries and veins run together and that's going to take care of quite a bit of this. So here you see all of the key blood vessels, but I'm going to show you images and show you a little more close-ups of where they are and give you as many hints as I can as far as what the names mean or how to remember where these are located. So here we're going to start with the parts of the aorta. So the aorta is the largest blood vessel in your body. It comes right off the left ventricle, but you will see that it has several names depending on where it is. We have the ascending aorta is the part that travels right up out of the heart. The aortic arch is then the part that curves and heads down. And then we have the descending aorta. The descending aorta then becomes the thoracic aorta once you get there underneath the heart. And it becomes the abdominal aorta once you're inside the abdominal pelvic cavity and then we'll branch into your iliac arteries, which we'll cover in a different image. Also here on this image, you do see the right and left subclavian arteries. So clavy means clavicle. So the subclavian arteries are going to be right here underneath your clavicles. You also then have the right and left common crotid artery. Your crotid artery is the one you take your pulse with there in your neck. So that's going to be the right and left common crotid arteries running up the neck. Also remember, notice that the left common crotid arteries on the right side of the image, we're talking about our patients lefts and rights, not the picture we're looking at. All right. I think those are all the most important ones here on this first image. Well, I guess the brachiosephalic trunk, I never asked you to identify it, but it's kind of famous because the brachiosephalic trunk is the first branch off the aorta. If you think about all of your arteries either come off the aorta or branch from a blood vessel that came off the aorta, it's one big circulatory system. But the brachiosephalic trunk is that first branch. Okay. Here we see the head. First we have the vertebral arteries. So you can notice from this image here, they are traveling right through the vertebrae. When you learned your cervical vertebrae, remember they have those two holes on the sides called the transverse foramina. Those holes are where your vertebral arteries actually travel up into your head. So that's your vertebral artery. Then we do have the brachiosephalic trunk again. Actually, I don't see it on here. It was on the last image. Sorry. Then the carotid arteries. So you'll notice that the carotid artery is now branched into an internal carotid artery and an external carotid artery. So we saw the common carotid artery before but here's where it branches into the internal and external. You'll see the same thing with the iliac arteries in just a little bit. Those are the only important ones here. When you look at the abdominal pelvic cavity, I'm never going to ask you what's this little nub? What's this branch that used to go somewhere before it was cut off? So I don't ask a lot about the arteries in the abdomen. You can see again the descending aorta here, the thoracic aorta, and the abdominal aorta. So those are important. And then we have at the bottom there the common iliac artery. That's going to be the two main branches off the aorta. And they're going to branch into the internal iliac arteries and the external iliac arteries. Only other one on here. Now, if I ever ask you to identify a blood vessel that goes to an organ, it will be the renal artery. And that's because the kidneys are still here on the picture. I'm not a big fan of this. Where does this nub go? I remember when I was in school, I had to know where those nubs went and you may someday in the future if you go to medical school. But I may ask you about the renal artery because at least you can see the kidneys there so you know where it's going. All right. Next we have the arm. So to me, this is the easiest, the arteries of the arms, whereas the veins are a little bit trickier. But we start there at the top with the right subclavian artery as it runs under the clavicle. Once it gets into the armpit region, it's now the axillary artery because that's the axilla. And that's going to become the brachial artery that runs down your arm. And there at the elbow, it's going to branch into the radial and ulnar arteries. Remember the radius is on the thumb side always. So that's the subclavian artery, axillary artery, brachial artery branching into your radial and ulnar arteries. That's all you have to know with the arteries of the upper extremity. And here we have the lower extremity. So we've already mentioned the common iliac is the branch that comes right off of the aorta. And that's going to branch into the internal and external iliac arteries. As far as new ones on here, you can see the femoral artery. That one's pretty famous, very big, lots of pressure in it. If you damage the femoral artery, you do not have long to stop the bleeding before you will pass. So there's the femoral artery there. And you can see both the anterior and posterior view. The popliteal artery, hopefully remember from chapter one that the popliteus is the space behind your knee. So the popliteal artery will run there behind the knee. Then we have the anterior and posterior tibial arteries. The tibia is the large lower leg bone there immediately. And the anterior tibial artery runs in front of it. The posterior tibial artery runs behind it. Then lastly here we have the dorsalis pedisum called the dorsalis pedis. Both are fine. The reason that's important is that's a very important pulse point in your lower extremity. So we talked about the pulse points. We have the crotid artery here in your neck. The femoral artery is a good place to get a pulse. And there at the ankle you can use the dorsalis pedis or dorsalis pedis. Okay, that's actually it. So that's going to be all the major arteries that I expect you to know. I hope this helps. Have a wonderful day. Be blessed.