The ascending cervical artery arises from the inferior thyroid behind the internal jugular vein. It runs up the neck close to the tips of the transverse processes of the cervical vertebra, in the groove between the anterior scalene and the longus capitis muscles, and to the medial side of the phrenic nerve. Its branches to the muscles of the neck communicate with the muscular branches of the vertebral artery. Others enter the intervertebral foramina to reach the bodies of the vertebrae and the spinal cord and its meninges. It anastomoses with the vertebral, ascending pharyngeal, and branches of the occipital artery. It sends a branch to the phrenic nerve.

Arteria cervicalis ascendens

Artère cervicale ascendante