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The intercostal arteries are a group of arteries that supply the area between the ribs , called the intercostal space. The highest intercostal artery is an artery in the human body that usually gives rise to the first and second posterior intercostal arteries, which supply blood to their corresponding intercostal space. It usually arises from the costocervical trunk, which is a branch of the subclavian artery. Some anatomists may contend that there is no supreme intercostal artery, only a supreme intercostal vein.
The anterior intercostal branches of internal thoracic artery supply the upper five or six intercostal spaces. The internal thoracic artery then divides into the superior epigastric artery and musculophrenic artery. The latter gives out the remaining anterior intercostal branches. Two in number in each space, these small vessels pass lateralward, one lying near the lower margin of the rib above, and the other near the upper margin of the rib below, and anastomose with the posterior intercostal arteries from the thoracic aorta.
They are at first situated between the pleurae and the intercostales interni, and then between the intercostales interni and innermost. They supply the intercostal muscles and, by branches which perforate the intercostales externi, the pectoral muscles and the mamma.
The musculophrenic artery arises from the internal thoracic artery, directed obliquely downward and laterally, behind the cartilages of the false ribs; it perforates the diaphragm at the eighth or ninth costal cartilage, and ends, considerably reduced in size, opposite the last intercostal space.