What is the aortic arch?

The aortic arch, or arch of the aorta, is that curved portion of the aorta, which, in every representation of the human heart, is noted to carry the cardiac organ with it.

Anatomically speaking ...

The aortic arch begins 5-6 centimeters after the ascending aorta (which is the very first stretch of the aorta), extends for a length approximately equal to the stretch that precedes it and ends where the descending aorta begins.

On its upper face - generally in the central part of the curvature - it gives rise to three arterial branches of fundamental importance, which supply the upper limbs and the head with blood. These branches are called the left subclavian artery, the left common carotid artery and the anonymous artery.

From the point of view of the relationships it establishes with the neighboring anatomical structures, on the anterolateral side it is related to different nervous structures (for example the left vagus nerve, the nerves of the anterior cardiac plexus, etc.); on the posterolateral side it is in contact with the trachea, the posterior cardiac plexus, the esophagus, the inferior laryngeal nerve, the thoracic duct and some lymph nodes; finally, on the lower face it comes into contact, for a stretch, with the pulmonary artery and, for another stretch, with the left pulmonary artery.