What Is the Common Carotid Artery?

Common carotid artery: The common carotid artery is the main arterial trunk of the head and neck. The right side is from the innominate artery, and the left side is directly from the autonomic arch. The common arteries on both sides pass through the back of the sternoclavicular joint, rise along the trachea and the lateral laryngeal, and are divided into the internal carotid artery and external carotid artery to the upper edge of the thyroid cartilage. When the head, face and neck are bleeding, the common carotid artery is compressed, and the bleeding is temporarily rescued.

Common carotid artery: The common carotid artery is the main arterial trunk of the head and neck. The right side is from the innominate artery, and the left side is directly from the autonomic arch. The common arteries on both sides pass through the back of the sternoclavicular joint, rise along the trachea and the lateral laryngeal, and are divided into the internal carotid artery and external carotid artery to the upper edge of the thyroid cartilage. When the head, face and neck are bleeding, the common carotid artery is compressed, and the bleeding is temporarily rescued.

Chinese name

Common carotid artery

Foreign name

common carotid artery

Attributes

Arterial trunk of head and neck

Important structure

Carotid sinus and carotid bulb

Common carotid artery anatomy:

1. Common carotid artery:

One on the left and one on the right, from the head and arm trunk, and the left from the autonomic arch. The common carotid arteries on both sides pass through the back of the left and right sternoclavicular joints, rise along the outer side of the trachea and the larynx, and are divided into the internal carotid artery and external carotid artery at the upper edge of the thyroid cartilage. There are no branches along this route. The anterior segment of the common carotid artery is covered by the sternocleidomastoid muscle and the subhyoid muscle group. The upper segment is located in the carotid triangle and is superficial, where the arterial pulse can be touched. The medial side is adjacent to the esophagus, trachea, throat, and thyroid. The lateral side is adjacent to the internal jugular vein, and there is a vagus nerve behind the two. The common carotid artery, internal jugular vein, and vagus nerve are enclosed in the carotid artery sheath. The hypoglossal neural crest and its branches span the front of the sheath.

The line between the midpoint of the sternoclavicular joint and the midpoint of the mandibular angle to the mastoid line is the surface projection of the common carotid artery and the external carotid artery.

During the ascending of the common carotid artery, the height of the flat circular cartilage (the midpoint of the anterior edge of the sternocleidomastoid muscle) passes through the front of the transverse process of the 6th cervical vertebra. When the head, neck and face are hemorrhaged, the common carotid artery can be pressed backward on the 6th cervical vertebra process to achieve temporary emergency hemostasis.

There are two important structures where the common carotid artery is divided into internal and external carotid arteries. Swelling slightly at the beginning of the internal carotid artery is called the carotid sinus. The tube wall contains a large number of sensory nerve endings from the glossopharyngeal nerve, forming a baroreceptor, which functions the same as the baroreceptor of the aortic arch. Another important structure is the carotid body (carotid globule), which is a flat oval body formed by epithelial cells. Located behind the common carotid bifurcation, it is connected to the posterior wall by connective tissue. Contains a large number of sensory nerve endings from the glossopharyngeal nerve, constituting chemoreceptors, which have the same effect as the aortic body (sphere).

2. Neck:

When examining the neck of a newborn, use one hand to support the upper back and back, and let the head slowly sag and stretch to expose the neck.

The newborn's neck is short, located in the middle, freely moving (but not upright), no depressions, defects, and lumps; except when crying, there is no resistance to flexing the neck.

Neonatal neck deformities: Short neck is found in congenital osteosynthesis syndrome of the neck and thoracic vertebrae, minor disease, mucopolysaccharidosis; webbed neck is characterized by excessive skin from both sides of the neck along the upper edge of the trapezius muscle Reach the middle of the shoulders; Torticollis is found in congenital torticollis, most of which are caused by fetal sternocleidomastoid muscle damage in the uterus, and a few are birth injuries. Examination shows that the sternocleidomastoid muscle on the diseased side is thick and short. If not obvious, the child's head can be corrected to see the sternal end of the sternocleidomastoid muscle on the diseased side.

Neonatal neck mass: The most common one is sternocleidomastoid hematoma. Most of the sternocleidomastoid muscles can be touched on the side of the sternocleidomastoid muscle or the middle of both sides with a diameter of 2 to 4cm. The spindle-shaped mass moves with the muscles, mostly with slight tenderness and normal skin color. Congenital neck hydrocysts are also common tumors in the neck of the neonatal period. They are mostly located in the supraclavicular area, and are soft and transparent. The masses in the center of the neck are thyroid-glossal duct cysts and goiters, the latter of which are often the result of mother's thyroid disease treated with thyroid medicine. Noise may be heard on auscultation at the thyroid site. In both cases, newborns have transient hyperthyroidism.

In addition, one side of the neck is recessed, but it is obviously asymmetric, which is often a fixed posture formed by the long-term tilt of the fetal head to the side in the uterus.

Morphological structure of the common carotid artery:

The common carotid artery is the main artery of the head and neck. One left and one right. The right common carotid artery starts from the head and arm trunk; the left common carotid artery starts directly from the autonomic arch. The common carotid arteries on both sides rise from the back of the sternoclavicular joint, along the trachea and the outside of the larynx, without branching during travel, and are divided into the internal carotid artery and the external carotid artery at the upper edge of the flat thyroid cartilage. The common carotid artery occupies the anterior side of the oblique angle muscle and the jugular longus muscle, and its medial side is adjacent to the esophagus, trachea, larynx, and thyroid, and the lateral side is the internal jugular vein. The common carotid artery, internal jugular vein, and vagus nerve are enclosed within the carotid artery sheath. The lower part of the common carotid artery is covered by the sternocleidomastoid muscle and the subhyoid muscle group, but the upper common carotid artery is only covered by the superficial cervical fascia, superficial cervical fascia and latissimus dorsi at the carotid triangle. The location is shallow, where you can touch its pulse. The midpoint of the line connecting the sternoclavicular joint with the mandibular angle and the mastoid tip is the projection of the common carotid artery and the external carotid artery. The common carotid artery goes upwards in front of the transverse process of the 6th cervical vertebra, so press the back of the circular cartilage (that is, the midpoint of the sternocleidomastoid muscle) to press the common carotid artery toward the transverse process of the 6th cervical vertebra to reach the head , Neck, facial bleeding for temporary emergency bleeding purpose. At the common carotid artery bifurcation, the swelling at the ends of the common carotid artery and the start of the internal carotid artery is called sinuscaroticum, and there are special sensory nerve endings in the wall, which are baroreceptors. The carotid artery bulb (glomuscaroticum) is a flat oval body located behind the bifurcation of the internal and external carotid arteries and connected to the artery wall by connective tissue. It is a chemoreceptor like the aortic globule.