hi let's talk about the superficial vasculature of the face in this video we'll talk about the facial
artery in its branches as well as the facial vein and its tributaries the facial artery is typically
the third anteriorly oriented artery off of the external carotid artery so the common carotid
artery bifurcates into the internal and external carotid the external carotid sends a superior
thyroid artery and then a lingual artery and then finally a facial artery anteriorly it's not
uncommon for the facial and the lingual arteries to share a common trunk between the two of them
the facial artery moves anteriorly usually inferior and usually deep to the body of the
mandible it's deep to the platysma and it emerges over the body of the mandible just anterior to the
anterior most attachment of the masseter muscle the facial artery then courses over the buccal
region moves medially towards the nose and ascends the face towards the medial angle or canthus of
the eye so let's take a look at the major branches of the facial so here we can see the fibers of the
masseter one of the major muscles of mastication inserting on the mandible just anterior to that
insertion is where we see the facial artery move on to the mandible and that is approximately the
pulse point for the facial artery the facial artery then ascends and its first branch is
the inferior labial artery this inferior labial artery is going to supply the mental region with
blood and it's going to meet its counterpart along the midline the next branch is the superior labial
artery this superior labial artery is going to be much more robust than the inferior labial artery
and it too is going to meet its counterpart along the midline it can also send branches up to serve
the nasal cavity generally the the septal region of the nasal cavity as the facial artery continues
superiorly and medially it's then going to send a lateral nasal artery out to the side of the
nose and it's not uncommon for that lateral nasal artery to send a nasal branch to serve the lateral
wall of the nose and then finally the distal part beyond lateral nasal artery becomes the
angular artery that angular artery is generally deep to levator labii superioris alaeque nasii
muscle and it heads towards the medial angle or canthus of the eye hence the name angular artery
as you'll notice here the branches or I should say the tributaries of the facial vein are going
to mirror those of the facial artery so there's an angular artery in an angular vein a lateral nasal
artery and a lateral nasal vein superior labial artery superior label vein inferior labial artery
inferior labial vein but we also have this bonus vein this deep facial vein the deep facial vein
is draining the buccal space and it also typically anastomosis with the pterygoid plexus of so those
deep veins in the mid-face so here we can see a cadaveric image of the facial artery and one thing
that immediately jumps out is that the facial artery and its branches are much more torturous
than one would presume from illustrations so here is that anterior edge of the masseter coming down
sometimes you could pop a a slight depression there at the at the point at which the facial
artery enters on to the mandible sometimes that's referred to as the pre masseteric a notch anyways
we can see the facial artery and all of its torturousness we can see a very modest inferior
labial artery a very very torturous facial artery a very robust and torturous superior labial artery
and then heading up towards the lateral aspect of the nose the lateral nasal artery this has
been cut and reflected so our angular artery is up there we can also see some of the venous elements
that are mirroring these so for instance next to the angular artery which is here the angular vein
I don't happen to see a lateral nasal vein here I see or perhaps this is the lateral nasal vein I I
don't see the labial veins there but we do see a very nice and robust deep facial vein heading into
that that buccal space now the the facial vein if we turn our attention to the photograph to the the
left here so just so that we can orient ourselves here is the angle of the mandible here is the
submandibular gland here and we can see the facial artery to sending down off of the mandible going
deep to that submandibular gland which is very typical we can also see the facial vein exiting
the surface of the mandible at approximately the same location and that facial vein is coming back
and it is joining with the anterior division of the retro mandibular vein so these are forming
a common trunk there sometimes this is just referred to as the continuation of the facial
vein sometimes it's called the common facial vein and that is going to drain blood into the internal
jugular vein the ijv so facial vein meets up with the anterior division of Retro mandibular to feed
into the internal jugular vein at this point you should ask yourself what happens with that
posterior division of retro mandibular hopefully you recall from earlier sessions that that
posterior division of retro mandibular is meeting up with the posterior auricular vein to form the
external jugular vein and that's going to descend over the surface of the sternocleidomastoid muscle
now for our assessment question the facial vein typically joins with which other vein
before draining into the internal jugular vein is it the angular vein well the angular vein
is up near the medial angle of the eye so I'm going to say no to that brachiocephalic
nada brachiocephalic veins are where i JV meets subclavian veins external jugular veins next start
of jugular veins are formed from the posterior division of retro mandibular in the posterior
auricular so that is a no retro mandibular vein anterior division sounds good so far
retro mandibular posterior division nope that's ej so the correct answer is facial vein adjoining
retro mandibular anterior division to drain into the IJ v thank you very much for you time