Angular artery

At a glance

English

Angular artery

Latin (TA2)

Arteria angularis

System

Artery

Region

Head

Side

Paired, left and right

About the angular artery

The angular artery is the name given to the end of the facial artery once that vessel has passed the side of the nose. Having crossed the jaw and wound up past the corner of the mouth, the facial artery runs upwards along the side of the nose, and from about the level of the ala it is called the angular artery. It continues up to the medial canthus, the inner corner of the eye, where the upper and lower eyelids meet.

On its way it lies among the fibres of the angular head of levator labii superioris, the slip of muscle that lifts the upper lip and flares the nostril. The angular vein, which begins at the same corner of the eye, runs with it and is a recognised route by which infection of the face can reach the cavernous sinus.

The artery is a meeting point between the external and internal carotid systems. Over the cheek its branches anastomose with the infraorbital artery, a branch of the maxillary. At the inner corner of the eye it ends by joining the dorsal nasal artery, an ophthalmic branch that comes out of the orbit above the medial palpebral ligament.

Its territory covers the lacrimal sac, much of the outer surface of the nose, some of the lower lid and the medial fibres of orbicularis oculi. Plastic surgeons use it as the axial vessel of nasolabial flaps for rebuilding the nose. Because it lies superficially at the medial canthus, it can be damaged by needles placed there, for instance in acupuncture or in filler injection.

Course and supply

Arises from

The facial artery, of which it is the terminal part, beginning beside the ala of the nose.

Ends in

Ends at the inner corner of the eye in an anastomosis with the dorsal nasal artery from the ophthalmic.

Supplies

Supplies the lacrimal sac, the outer nose, the lower lid in part and orbicularis oculi, and links the external and internal carotid territories.