The upper parts of the esophagus and the upper esophageal sphincter receive blood from the inferior thyroid artery, the parts of the esophagus in the thorax from the gastric and celiac lymph nodes.
12.
It is accompanied by the recurrent nerve, and supplies the muscles and mucous membrane of this part, anastomosing with the branch from the opposite side, and with the superior laryngeal branch of the superior thyroid artery.
13.
Medially, it is in relation with the esophagus, trachea, and thyroid gland ( which overlaps it ), the inferior thyroid artery and recurrent laryngeal nerve being interposed; higher up, with the larynx and pharynx.
14.
Reaching the lower border of the thyroid gland it divides into two branches, which supply the postero-inferior parts of the gland, and anastomose with the superior thyroid artery, and with the corresponding artery of the opposite side.
15.
The chief communications outside the skull take place between the superior and inferior thyroid arteries, and the deep cervical artery and the descending branch of the occipital artery; the vertebral artery takes the place of the internal carotid artery within the cranium.
16.
These branches are derived from the vertebral artery, the ascending cervical artery, a branch of the inferior thyroid artery in the neck, the intercostal arteries in the thorax, and from the lumbar artery, iliolumbar artery and lateral sacral arteries in the abdomen and pelvis.
17.
The "'ascending cervical artery "'is a small branch which arises from the inferior thyroid artery as it passes behind the carotid sheath; it runs up on the anterior tubercles of the transverse processes of the cervical vertebrae in the interval between the anterior scalene muscle and the longus capitis.
18.
In front of the sheath are a few descending filaments from the ansa cervicalis; behind the sheath are the inferior thyroid artery, the recurrent nerve, and the sympathetic trunk; and on its medial side, the esophagus, the trachea, the thyroid gland, and the lower part of the larynx.
19.
A 2.5 ?1.5-inch ( 64 ?38 mm ) tumor was removed from the thyroid artery of a man suffering from advanced OFC . The patient's symptoms disappeared, only to return in approximately six years as a result of renal stones that were diagnosed only after the patient had died.
20.
This part of the artery is crossed obliquely, from its medial to its lateral side, by the sternocleidomastoid branch of the superior thyroid artery; it is also crossed by the superior and middle thyroid veins ( which end in the internal jugular vein ); descending in front of its sheath is the descending branch of the hypoglossal nerve, this filament being joined by one or two branches from the cervical nerves, which cross the vessel obliquely.
