External Jugular Vein - Path

Path

It commences in the substance of the parotid gland, on a level with the angle of the mandible, and runs perpendicularly down the neck, in the direction of a line drawn from the angle of the mandible to the middle of the clavicle at the posterior border of the sternocleidomastoideus.

In its course it crosses the sternocleidomastoideus obliquely, and in the subclavian triangle perforates the deep fascia, and ends in the subclavian vein lateral to or in front of the scalenus anterior, piercing the roof of the posterior triangle.

It is separated from the sternocleidomastoideus by the investing layer of the deep cervical fascia, and is covered by the platysma, the superficial fascia, and the integument; it crosses the cutaneous cervical nerve, and its upper half runs parallel with the great auricular nerve.

The external jugular vein varies in size, bearing an inverse proportion to the other veins of the neck, it is occasionally double.

The external jugular vein drains into the subclavian vein lateral to the junction of the subclavian vein and the internal jugular vein.

Read more about this topic:  External Jugular Vein

Famous quotes containing the word path:

    “I love to weigh, to settle, to gravitate toward that which most strongly and rightfully attracts me;Mnot hang by the beam of the scale and try to weigh less,—not suppose a case, but take the case that is; to travel the only path I can, and that on which no power can resist me. It affords me no satisfaction to commence to spring an arch before I have got a solid foundation.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “The purifying, healing influence of literature, the dissipating of passions by knowledge and the written word, literature as the path to understanding, forgiveness and love, the redeeming might of the word, the literary spirit as the noblest manifestation of the spirit of man, the writer as perfected type, as saint.”
    —Thomas Mann (1875–1955)

    “What is the use of going right over the old track again? There is an adder in the path which your own feet have worn. You must make tracks into the Unknown.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)