Upper limb
Lateral thoracic artery
Arteria thoracica lateralis
- Origin
- Arises from the second part of the axillary artery near the lateral border of pectoralis minor
- Insertion
- Descends along the lateral chest wall on serratus anterior with the long thoracic nerve
- Function
- Supplies serratus anterior, pectoralis muscles, axillary lymph nodes, and the lateral breast (lateral mammary branches)
- Innervation
- Sympathetic perivascular nerves
- Movement & chain
- Follows thoracic excursion along the lateral chest wall
- Palpation
- Not palpable through lateral thoracic soft tissue
- Clinical
- Major source of lateral breast vascularity; risk of bleeding and injury during axillary node clearance and mastectomy
- Segmental innervation
- C5–T1 roots
- In clinical practice
- Surgically identified and ligated during modified radical mastectomy and axillary lymphadenectomy
- Region in the model
- Upper limb