Inferior cervical ganglion
Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data
At the time the article was created Craig Hacking had the following disclosures:
- Philips Australia, Paid speaker at Philips Spectral CT events (ongoing)
These were assessed during peer review and were determined to not be relevant to the changes that were made.
View Craig Hacking's current disclosuresAt the time the article was last revised Yoshi Yu had no financial relationships to ineligible companies to disclose.
View Yoshi Yu's current disclosures- inferior cervical ganglia
The inferior cervical ganglion (plural: ganglia) is the second largest ganglion of the cervical sympathetic trunk and provides autonomic innervation to the head and neck region.
On this page:
Gross anatomy
The inferior cervical ganglion is formed by embryologically fused C7 and C8 sympathetic ganglia. It has superior connections to the middle cervical ganglion and in 80% of individuals, it is fused with the first thoracic ganglion, in which it is called the stellate ganglion.
Location
It is bilaterally located at the level of C7 anterior to the transverse processes.
Relations
anterior: preforaminal segment of the vertebral artery and vertebral veins
posterior: longus colli muscle and neck of the first rib
lateral: superior intercostal artery
inferior: costocervical trunk, suprapleural membrane, cupola of the pleura
Innervation
The inferior cervical ganglion provides sympathetic innervation to the head and neck.
It sends branches to the vertebral artery (form a vertebral plexus) which ascends on its surface through the transverse foramina. It gives off small branches to the posterolateral corners of the cervical intervertebral discs and the cervical spinal meninges at each cervical segment. The vertebral plexus enters the skull on the vertebral and basilar arteries.
Small branches extend to the inferior thyroid artery, along with small branches from the recurrent laryngeal nerve and external laryngeal nerves, which enter the thyroid gland.
A large branch containing preganglionic efferent fibres forms the inferior cardiac nerve which courses inferiorly behind the subclavian artery and anterior to the trachea to join the deep part of the cardiac plexus. This branch also receives fibres from the recurrent laryngeal nerve and often fibres from the middle cardiac nerve of the middle cervical ganglion.
The ganglion supplies:
vasomotor tone to the vertebrobasilar system
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Variant anatomy
The inferior cervical ganglion is often fused with the first thoracic ganglion, forming the stellate ganglion, which is present in 80% of individuals.
Clinical importance
Horner syndrome can be caused by pathology of the cervical sympathetic ganglia.
References
- 1. Robert H. Whitaker, Neil R. Borley. Instant Anatomy. ISBN: 9780632054039
- 2. Susan Standring. Gray's Anatomy. ISBN: 9780702052309
- 3. Last's anatomy, regional and applied. Churchill Livingstone. ISBN:044304662X. Read it at Google Books - Find it at Amazon
- 4. Moore KL, Agur AMR, Dalley AF. Clinically oriented anatomy. LWW. ISBN:1451119453. Read it at Google Books - Find it at Amazon
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