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Home  »  Anatomy of the Human Body  »  pages 662

Henry Gray (1825–1861). Anatomy of the Human Body. 1918.

pages 662

by the deltoid branch of the thoracoacromial artery. It pierces the coracoclavicular fascia and, crossing the axillary artery, ends in the axillary vein just below the clavicle. Sometimes it communicates with the external jugular vein by a branch which ascends in front of the clavicle.
  The accessory cephalic vein (v. cephalica accessoria) arises either from a small tributory plexus on the back of the forearm or from the ulnar side of the dorsal venous net-work; it joins the cephalic below the elbow. In some cases the accessory cephalic springs from the cephalic above the wrist and joins it again higher up. A large oblique branch frequently connects the basilic and cephalic veins on the back of the forearm.
  The basilic vein (v. basilica) (Fig. 574) begins in the ulnar part of the dorsal venous network. It runs up the posterior surface of the ulnar side of the forearm and inclines forward to the anterior surface below the elbow, where it is joined by the vena mediana cubiti. It ascends obliquely in the groove between the Biceps brachii and Pronator teres and crosses the brachial artery, from which it is separated by the lacertus fibrosus; filaments of the medial antibrachial cutaneous nerve pass both in front of and behind this portion of the vein. It then runs upward along the medial border of the Biceps brachii, perforates the deep fascia a little below the middle of the arm, and, ascending on the medial side of the brachial artery to the lower border of the Teres major, is continued onward as the axillary vein.


FIG. 574– The superficial veins of the upper extremity. (See enlarged image)
  The median antibrachial vein (v. mediana antibrachii) drains the venous plexus on the volar surface of the hand. It ascends on the ulnar side of the front of the forearm and ends in the basilic vein or in the vena mediana cubiti; in a small proportion of cases it divides into two branches, one of which joins the basilic, the other the cephalic, below the elbow.