Anatomy and Embalming / A Treatise on the Science and Art of Embalming, the Latest and Most Successful Methods of Treatment and the General Anatomy Relating to this Subject

by Albert John Nunnamaker; Charles Otto Dhonau

In injecting the body from the carotid, the arterial tube should be inserted first toward the heart, and after the body has received a sufficient amount of fluid, if it is noticed that the side of the face from which you are injecting has not received a supply of fluid, then reverse the tube and inject a few bulbs of fluid upward.

Relation of Artery, Vein and Nerve.—The common carotid artery lies in relation to the internal jugular vein and the pneumogastric nerve. The artery lies to the inside next to the muscles surrounding the trachea (windpipe). The internal jugular artery lies to the outside of the artery. Just back of the common carotid artery and the internal jugular vein and between the two lies the pneumogastric (vagus) nerve. These all as a rule lie in the same common sheath of deep fascia.

How to Locate and Inject the Axillary Artery.

—The axillary in recent years has come to be a much used artery. It not quite as large as the common carotid, but as a rule large enough to admit the large size arterial tube. It has become a favorite with many because it is quite easy to locate and to raise, and because of its proximity to the axillary vein, a vein which is large enough to admit a drainage tube for the withdrawal of blood. Again the axillary artery is in a secluded place, being as it is in the axillary space (arm pit). The artery does not lie very deep, and is not covered by any muscles as you operate, there being practically nothing to hinder the progress of the operation.

Fig. 47—The axillary and its branches. (Gray)

Then after the operation is completed and the arm placed back in normal position, the casual observer is not liable to see the incision, even though the body be only partially dressed.

Linear Guide.—A line drawn through the center of the axillary space (arm pit), at the anterior border of the hair line.

The Axillary Space.—When the arm is maintained in a horizontal plane, the axilla has the shape of a three-sided pyramid, the apex of which lies above, below the clavicle, and the base of which corresponds to the lower wall, covered only by skin and fascia.