Anterior Neck

As with all regions of the body, your study should start out with a look at the living region being studied. In the neck, the following diagram points out the major landmarks of the neck.

Common carotid artery (cc) Internal carotid artery (ic) External carotid artery (ec) Carotid sinus (cs)

Superficial structures that you should know from the lateral view of the neck. sternomastoid trapezius occipital lymph nodes (on) retroauricular lymph nodes (ran) superficial cervical lymph nodes (scn) submental lymph nodes (smn) buccal lymph nodes (bn) parotid lymph nodes (pn) submandibular lymph nodes (not labeled but uner angle of mandible)

It is very important to visually project deep structures onto the surface of a person or patient when making educated clinical diagnoses. The first thing you will usually do during a physical examination is to palpate any superficial structure that you can so that you can tell if abnormal changes have occurred. Swollen lymph nodes will tell you if there is an infection in an area that is drained by the nodes. The superficial group of nodes in the neck drain the skin of the face and nose, scalp and external ear. The submental nodes also drain the tip of the tongue. Deeper regions of the head and neck drain into a deep group of lymph nodes and are less palpable.
In the anterior neck, you can palpate the cartilages of the larynx and trachea. The thyroid gland is closely associated with the cricoid cartilage and the tracheal rings and should always be palpated in a general physical examination of the neck. Another very important structure that is palpable is the carotid artery. You should practice taking a carotid pulse since this is one site that is probably most often used to check to see if a person is still living.