Anterior interosseous artery

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

The anterior interosseous artery (volar interosseous artery), passes down the forearm on the volar surface of the interosseous membrane.

It is accompanied by the volar interosseous branch of the median nerve, and overlapped by the contiguous margins of the Flexor digitorum profundus and Flexor pollicis longus, giving off in this situation muscular branches, and the nutrient arteries of the radius and ulna.

At the upper border of the Pronator quadratus it pierces the interosseous membrane and reaches the back of the forearm, where it anastomoses with the dorsal interosseous artery.

It then descends, in company with the terminal portion of the dorsal interosseous nerve, to the back of the wrist to join the dorsal carpal net-work.

The volar interosseous artery gives off a slender branch, the arteria mediana, which accompanies the median nerve, and gives offsets to its substance; this artery is sometimes much enlarged, and runs with the nerve into the palm of the hand.

Before it pierces the interosseous membrane the volar interosseous sends a branch downward behind the Pronator quadratus to join the volar carpal network.