Bronchial artery

Bronchial arteries are the arteries of the systemic circulation, which are used to supply the bronchi and the lung parenchyma and connective tissue with nutrients and oxygen, and therefore represent the vasa privata of the lung.

The left bronchial arteries arise usually from the thoracic aorta, while the right bronchial arteries mainly arise from the truncus intercostobronchialis. There are anastomoses with branches of the pulmonary arteries.

The removal of most of the blood out of the lungs takes place through the pulmonary veins, not via the bronchial.

Bronchial arteries are not to be confused with the pulmonary arteries, which transport in the pulmonary circulation, the oxygen- poor blood of the right ventricle to the pulmonary alveoli, and thus serve the external respiration.

• Artery of the thoracic cavity