Upper limb
Posterior circumflex humeral artery
Arteria circumflexa humeri posterior
- Origin
- Arises from the third part of the axillary artery
- Insertion
- Passes through the quadrangular space with the axillary nerve to encircle the surgical neck of the humerus
- Function
- Major blood supply to the deltoid muscle, teres minor, long/lateral heads of triceps, and shoulder capsule
- Innervation
- Sympathetic perivascular plexus
- Movement & chain
- Traverses the quadrangular space during shoulder abduction and external rotation
- Palpation
- Not palpable through the thick posterior deltoid muscle
- Clinical
- Quadrilateral space syndrome (compression causing posterior shoulder pain and deltoid weakness in overhead athletes); damaged in shoulder dislocations
- Segmental innervation
- C5–C6 segmental levels
- In clinical practice
- Crucial landmark to preserve in posterior shoulder exposures and arthroscopic shoulder reconstructions
- Region in the model
- Upper limb