The facial artery, a branch of the external carotid artery, enters the race by curling round the body of the lower jawbone, just anterior to the cheek muscles. From this point it makes a tortuous Course past the angle of the mouth to the medial angle of the palpebral fissure of the eye. Near the angle of the mouth it gives off a superior and inferior labial branch which communicates directly with those of the opposite side across the midline.
The superficial temporal artery, a terminal branch of the external Carotid artery, supplies the temple and the scalp and by the transverse facial artery the Cheek. The forehead and front part of the scalp are supplied by the supraorbital and the supratrochlear arteries, both branches of the ophthalmic artery which is itself a branch of the internal carotid artery. The posterior part of the scalp is supplied by two further branches of the external carotid artery These are the posterior auricular f and occipital arteries. The course and distribution of these vessels are illustrated. These vessels supplying the face and scalp communicate freely with each other across the midline and are thus able to establish an effective Collateral Circulation following obstruction or ligation before the external carotid artery.
The lymphatic drainage of the face and scalp
The face and scalp are surrounded by a ring of regional lymph nodes into which the adjacent superfacial tissues drain. The nodes of this ring in turn drain into the deep cervical lymph nodes, that are distributed over the Course of the internal jugular vein.
The regional nodes are illustrated in Figure 20, where the following groups can be identified: occipital, mastoid, superfacial Cervical nodes, parotid, submandibular, and the submental nodes.
Vessels from the scalp and ear, and temporal region drain into the mastoid, occipital, superfacial, cervical and the parotid nodes.
