Blood Vessels of the Face and Scalp

• Arises from the external carotid artery just above the upper border of the hyoid bone.
• Passes deep to the mandible, winds around the lower border of the mandible, and runs upward and forward on the face.
• Gives rise to the ascending palatine, tonsillar, glandular, and submental branches in the neck and the inferior labial, superior labial, and lateral nasal branches in the face.
• Terminates as an angular artery that anastomoses with the palpebral and dorsal nasal branches of the ophthalmic artery to establish communication between the external and internal carotid arteries.

• Arises behind the neck of the mandible as the smaller terminal branch of the external carotid artery and ascends anterior to the external acoustic meatus into the scalp.
• Accompanies the auriculotemporal nerve along its anterior surface.
• Gives rise to the transverse facial artery , which passes forward across the masseter between the zygomatic arch above and the parotid duct below.
• Also gives rise to zygomatico-orbital, middle temporal, anterior auricular, frontal, and parietal branches.

• Begins as an angular vein by the confluence of the supraorbital and supratrochlear veins. The
• angular vein is continued at the lower margin of the orbital margin into the facial vein.
• Receives tributaries corresponding to the branches of the facial artery and also receives the
• infraorbital and deep facial veins.
• Drains either directly into the internal jugular vein or by joining the anterior branch of the retromandibular vein to form the common facial vein , which then enters the internal jugular vein.
  Communicates with the superior ophthalmic vein and thus with the cavernous sinus , allowing a route of infection from the face to the cranial dural sinus.

• Is formed by the union of the superficial temporal and maxillary veins behind the mandible.
• Divides into an anterior branch , which joins the facial vein to form the common facial vein, and a posterior branch , which joins the posterior auricular vein to form the external jugular vein.