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Topic

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Facial artery

The facial artery is a major branch of the external carotid artery, supplying blood to the superficial and deep structures of the face. Highly tortuous in its course, it travels from the neck, across the lower border of the mandible, and ascends obliquely toward the medial canthus of the eye. The facial artery is vital for vascularizing the skin and muscles of facial expression, as well as important intraoral and perioral structures.

Synonyms

  • External maxillary artery (historical term)

  • Arteria facialis (Latin)

Function

  • Supplies oxygenated blood to superficial and deep facial structures

  • Provides branches to the lips (superior and inferior labial arteries), nose (lateral nasal artery), and angular artery (to the medial canthus)

  • Supports facial muscles, skin, oral cavity, tonsils, and soft palate

MRI Appearance

  • T1-weighted: Facial artery appears as a flow void (signal loss) due to rapidly flowing blood; the vessel itself is not directly visualized, but its course may be inferred by adjacent anatomy.

  • T2-weighted: Similar to T1, the facial artery is usually a flow void; surrounding soft tissues are bright, making the artery’s location apparent by the absence of signal.

  • STIR (Short Tau Inversion Recovery): Maintains flow voids; helps suppress fat signal, improving the contrast of vessels against the background, but the artery itself remains low signal.

  • TOF (Time-of-Flight): Excellent for vascular imaging; the facial artery appears as a hyperintense (bright) structure, especially in 3D angiographic sequences, enabling clear visualization of vessel patency and course.

CT Appearance

  • Appears as a small, tubular, enhancing structure along its typical anatomic course

  • Best visualized with contrast (CTA); otherwise, may be challenging to distinguish from adjacent soft tissue on non-contrast CT

CTA (CT Angiography)

  • Clearly delineates the facial artery as a contrast-enhanced, serpentine vessel along the lower face and cheek

MRI images

Facial artery mri axial image