Ophthalmic Artery

The ophthalmic artery is the main blood vessel which supplies the eye and nearby structures. It arises from the internal carotid artery at the level the middle cranial fossa at the base of the skull. Then it runs forwards through the optic foramen into the orbit, laterally to the optic nerve and medially to the superior rectus muscle. Just before it enters the orbit, it gives off its first branch, which is the central retinal artery, which supplies the retina.

In the orbit, the ophthalmic artery crosses over the optic nerve, traveling obliquely towards the medial wall of the orbit. As it runs in a lateral-medial direction, it gives off the lacrimal, the anterior meningeal, supraorbital, and the ciliary arteries, which provides the sclera, the choroid, and ciliary muscle and body with oxygenated blood. At the medial angle of the eye, the ophthalmic artery divides into two terminal branches; the supratrochlear artery, which supplies the frontalis muscle and the pericranium, and the dorsalis nasal artery, which irrigates the skin of the side of nose root.

Below, image of orbit, with the eye, showing the internal carotid and the ophthalmic artery, with some of its branches.