Inferior gluteal artery

Inferior gluteal artery
Left gluteal region, showing surface markings for arteries and sciatic nerve
Internal iliac artery and branches, including inferior gluteal artery
Details
Latin	Arteria glutaea inferior
Source	Internal iliac artery
Branches	Accompanying artery of ischiadic nerve
Vein	Inferior gluteal veins
Supplies	Gluteus maximus, piriformis and quadratus femoris muscles
Identifiers
Dorlands /Elsevier	a_61/12154415
TA
TH	{{#property:P1694}}
TE	{{#property:P1693}}
FMA	{{#property:P1402}}
Anatomical terminology [[[d:|edit on Wikidata]]]

The inferior gluteal artery (sciatic artery), the smaller of the two terminal branches of the anterior trunk of the internal iliac artery, is distributed chiefly to the buttock and back of the thigh.

It passes down on the sacral plexus of nerves and the piriformis muscle, behind the internal pudendal artery, to the lower part of the greater sciatic foramen, through which it escapes from the pelvis between the piriformis and coccygeus.

It then descends in the interval between the greater trochanter of the femur and tuberosity of the ischium, accompanied by the sciatic and posterior femoral cutaneous nerves, and covered by the gluteus maximus, and is continued down the back of the thigh, supplying the skin, and anastomosing with branches of the perforating arteries.

Additional images

• 

  The arteries of the gluteal and posterior femoral regions.

• Gray829.png

  Dissection of side wall of pelvis showing sacral and pudendal plexuses.

Dissection images
AGSI.jpg Inferior gluteal artery.

See also

• Superior gluteal artery

References

• This article incorporates text in the public domain from the 20th edition of Gray's Anatomy (1918)

External links

• Inferior_gluteal_artery at the Duke University Health System's Orthopedics program
• Anatomy figure: 43:07-12 at Human Anatomy Online, SUNY Downstate Medical Center - "Sagittal view of the internal iliac artery and its branches in the female pelvis. "
• pelvis at The Anatomy Lesson by Wesley Norman (Georgetown University) (pelvicarteries)