THE SUPERFICIAL VEINS OF THE UPPER EXTREMITY 



661 



the dorsal digital vein of the ulnar side of the little finger and is continued upward 

 as the basilic vein. A communicating branch frequently connects the dorsal 

 venous network with the cephalic vein about the middle of the forearm. 



The volar digital veins on each finger are connected to the dorsal digital veins 

 by oblique intercapitular veins. They drain into a venous plexus which is situated 

 over the thenar and hypothenar eminences and across the front of the wrist. 



Cephalic 



Dorsal venous 

 network 



FIG. 573. The veins on the dorsum of the hand. (Bourgery.) 



The cephalic vein (Fig. 574) begins in the radial part of the dorsal venous net- 

 work and winds upward around the radial border of the forearm, receiving tribu- 

 taries from both surfaces. Below the front of the elbow it gives off the vena mediana 

 cubiti (median basilic vein), which receives a communicating branch from the deep 

 veins of the forearm and passes across to join the basilic vein. The cephalic vein 

 then ascends in front of the elbow in the groove between the Brachioradialis and 

 the Biceps brachii. It crosses superficial to the musculocutaneous nerve and ascends 

 in the groove along the lateral border of the Biceps brachii. In the upper third 

 of the arm it passes between the Pectoralis major and Deltoideus, where it is accom- 



