Middle 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- Middle cervical ganglia
The middle cervical ganglion (plural: ganglia) is the smallest ganglion of the cervical sympathetic trunk and providing autonomic innervation to the head and neck region.
On this page:
Gross anatomy
The middle cervical ganglion is formed by embryologically fused C5 and C6 sympathetic ganglia. It has superior connections to the superior cervical ganglion or may be fused with it.
Location
It is bilaterally located at the level of C6 anterior to the transverse processes. Anterior to the longus capitis muscle and covered by the pre-vertebral fascia 5.
Relations
anterior: common carotid artery and internal jugular veins in the carotid sheath
posterior: longus capitis muscle and superior thyroid artery
Innervation
The middle cervical ganglion provides sympathetic innervation to the head and neck.
A small thyroid branch follows the inferior thyroid artery and receives fibres from the external laryngeal nerve, vagal cardiac branches and recurrent laryngeal nerve.
A larger branch containing preganglionic efferent fibres forms the middle cardiac nerve, which courses inferiorly behind the common carotid artery to join the deep part of the cardiac plexus. It also receives fibres from the recurrent laryngeal nerve and the vagus nerve.
The ganglion supplies:
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Variant anatomy
The middle cervical ganglion may be absent or fused with the superior cervical ganglion.
Variable location between C5-C7 5
Located within the carotid sheath (8-17%) 5
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
- 5. Park C, Suh C, Shin J, Baek J. Characteristics of the Middle Cervical Sympathetic Ganglion: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Pain Physician. 2018;21(1):9-18. - Pubmed
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