The middle group of branches of the external carotid artery: ascending pharyngeal artery, superficial temporal artery, maxillary artery.

1. A. pharyngea ascendens, the ascending pharyngeal artery, is directed upwards along the pharyngeal wall, supplying it with a soft palate, palatine tonsil, auditory tube, tympanic cavity, and a hard shell of the brain.

2. A. temporalis superficialis, the superficial temporal artery, one of the two terminal branches of the external carotid artery, proceeds as a continuation of the trunk a. carotis externa in front of the external auditory canal to the temple, located under the skin on the fascia of the temporal muscle. Here the artery can be pressed against the temporal bone. Its terminal branches, ramus frontalis and ramus parietalis, branch in the region of the vertex and temple. On the way, it gives branches to the parotid gland, to the lateral surface of the auricle and to the external auditory canal; part of the branches goes to the back of the face, to the outer corner of the eye, to m. orbicularis oculi and zygomatic bone. A. temporalis superficialis also supplies m. temporalis.

3. A. maxillaris, the maxillary artery, is another terminal branch of the external carotid artery. Its short trunk is divided into three sections to facilitate the study of branches: the first goes around the neck of the jaw, the second passes into the fossa infratemporalis on the surface m. pterygofdeus lateralis, third penetrates fossa pterygopalatina.

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