Inferior gluteal artery
Arteria glutea inferior
A paired branch of the internal iliac artery that leaves the pelvis below piriformis to supply the buttock and the posterior thigh.
At a glance
- English
- Inferior gluteal artery
- Latin (TA2)
- Arteria glutea inferior
- System
- Artery
- Region
- Trunk
- Side
- Paired, left and right
About the inferior gluteal artery
The inferior gluteal artery, once called the sciatic artery, is one of two vessels into which the internal iliac artery's anterior trunk finally divides; its partner is the internal pudendal artery, and the inferior gluteal is the larger of the two in most accounts. It is mainly a vessel of the buttock and the upper back of the thigh.
Inside the pelvis it runs down in front of the sacral plexus and piriformis, behind the internal pudendal artery, usually passing between the first and second or second and third sacral nerve roots. It exits by the lower portion of the greater sciatic foramen, coming out between piriformis and coccygeus into the buttock below piriformis.
In the gluteal region it lies under cover of gluteus maximus, in the interval separating the ischial tuberosity from the femur's greater trochanter. Travelling with it are the sciatic nerve and the thigh's posterior cutaneous nerve. It gives muscular branches to gluteus maximus and the small lateral rotators, a coccygeal branch, an articular branch to the hip joint and a long slender artery to the sciatic nerve. Its continuation descends behind the thigh, feeding the skin and joining the perforating branches of the deep femoral artery.
Its anastomoses with the medial and lateral circumflex femoral arteries and the first perforating artery form the cruciate anastomosis behind the upper femur, a route by which blood can bypass a block in the femoral artery. In early development the artery to the sciatic nerve is the main vessel of the lower limb; when it persists into adult life as a large sciatic artery it can become aneurysmal in the buttock.
Course and supply
- Arises from
- One of the two end branches of the internal iliac artery's anterior trunk.
- Ends in
- Leaves the pelvis below piriformis and ends in muscular, cutaneous and anastomotic branches in the buttock and upper posterior thigh.
- Supplies
- Supplies gluteus maximus, the lateral rotators of the hip, the hip joint, the sciatic nerve and the skin over the buttock and posterior thigh.
Anthromica
See the inferior gluteal artery where it really sits, with every layer of the body around it.
- Every layer, one body. Peel from muscle to bone, nerve, vessel and organ, and turn it any way.
- English and Latin. Every structure named the way your exam names it.
- Quiz until it sticks. Short drills on the structures you keep missing.
Free to start. No card.
