hello all dr. Alsup here and in this video we're gonna focus on how we can identify the veins
of the anterior neck we're gonna start with the deeper but the larger veins then we'll go back to
the superficial veins and lastly we will identify the veins that drain the thyroid and parathyroid
glands so let's get started get the pin going alright let's get started by identifying again
the major vein in the anterior neck region and that is going to be the internal jugular vein let
me ID this on both sides here it is typically easiest to see in a dissection of the carotid
sheath contents as its lateral most structures it drains blood from the venous sinuses that
drain the brain the this actual vein will begin at the jugular foramen travel inferiorly and meet
up with this large vein right here which is your subclavian vein now you do not need to identify
this for this session but you will in subsequent session so I'm going to go ahead and introduce
that here now where these two meet is referred to as the venous angle so this confluence or joining
of these veins is going to be the venous angle and past that point you have the brachiocephalic
veins you can see that the left brachiocephalic is longer than the right but once these two veins
join or meet they're going to have the formation of the superior vena cava that you can see right
here so the superior vena cava is going to drain the deoxygenated blood into the right atrium of
the heart so all the other smaller veins of the anterior neck that we are about to discuss are
going to drain into these larger veins here and this is one of my all-time I think illustrated
bluelink visuals that shows the veins in this region you can see that the clavicles have been
cut the sternum has been removed you can see the lungs here and you can see the beginnings
of the heart so you can get an idea of how all these veins are kind of meeting up in order to
form the superior vena cava which drains into the heart now let's move back superficially so named
because these superficial veins are named because of their relative position to the deep fashion of
the neck superficial veins are the most likely to have variations in size appearance connections but
what I and my colleagues are gonna be teaching you are the most typical patterns so kind of hint hint
these are the type of patterns that we're showing are going to be the type that would be tested on
so let's start with the superficial vein that is typically the most obvious and constant and it's
located in the anterior lateral neck and these are your external jugular veins so you can see these
here you know that you're looking superficially because here is your sternocleidomastoid muscle
so it's not going to be the internal jugular vein that's going to be deeper right here I also really
like this image over here you can see the ej or the external jugular vein very well right there
it's typically going to be again around the angle of the mandible which is right about there and
it's going to be formed by the junction of the posterior division of the retromandibular vein
and the posterior auricular vein so kind of right behind the ear so you're gonna have a vein that's
here and here they will meet up and that will form the external jugular vein it will run superficial
to and obliquely across the sternocleidomastoid which you can see really well here and typically
drains into the subclavian vein kind of lateral in deep to the sternocleidomastoid muscle and
we'll pick up venous tributaries you can see it one right about here you'll see some that are a
bit more anterior and it will pick these up along the way all these veins are trying to get their
blood to the superior vena cava to be drained into the heart oops excuse me returning back
to this particular image which is that straight anterior view let's locate the anterior jugular
veins you can see a nice one right here anterior jugular vein is considerably more variable both
in size and appearance it is odd to see two anterior jugular veins that look the same
but the most typical placement will be kind of descending anterior to the superficial infrahyoid
muscles so that's sternohyoid muscle if you see a vein on top of the sternohyoid it is likely going
to be labeled as the anterior jugular vein you will have sometimes a right and a left sometimes
you only have one if you do have a right and a left oftentimes they'll form a loop between one
another so there's a lot of variation in terms of the anterior jugular vein it will typically drain
into the external jugular vein so you have to kind of go behind the sternocleidomastoid to get
to that region or it will drain directly into the subclavian vein now let's focus on the veins that
drain the thyroid and parathyroid glands if you recall from the artery dissection supplementary
video there are two arteries that supply these glands but there will be three sets of veins
that drain the region the superior thyroid vein which you can see here so the superior thyroid
vein is located in this superior region of the thyroid gland excuse me and is closely associated
with the superior thyroid artery you can see the superior thyroid artery coming off of the external
carotid artery you can see that relationship really nicely here you can also see that it's
going to drain into the internal jugular vein the middle thyroid vein also drains into the internal
jugular vein it's kind of in the middle region of the thyroid gland and it may be associated
with the inferior thyroid artery but you can't really see that relationship here so that's not
as close of a relationship as you have with the superiors the inferior that thyroid veins are the
largest and they're fairly independent these typically drain into the left brachiocephalic
vein which you can see really well here so you can see those inferior thyroid veins draining
directly into the left brachiocephalic vein but it can drain into the right as well that is that
is a variation that is not uncommon and so you can see that there is a fairly robust and venous
drainage of these endocrine glands all right so these are the veins we want you to identify in
this anterior your next session many of these we will review in the next two sessions as well as
they overlap in those regions thank you for your attention and please have a good rest of your day