The inferior thyroid artery is an artery in the neck. It arises from the thyrocervical trunk and passes upward, in front of the vertebral artery and longus colli muscle. It then turns medially behind the carotid sheath and its contents, and also behind the sympathetic trunk, the middle cervical ganglion resting upon the vessel.

Reaching the lower border of the thyroid gland it divides into two branches, which supply the postero-inferior parts of the gland, and anastomose with the superior thyroid artery, and with the corresponding artery of the opposite side.

The branches of the inferior thyroid artery are the inferior laryngeal, the oesophageal, the tracheal, the ascending cervical and the pharyngeal arteries.

Inferior laryngeal artery

The inferior laryngeal artery - accompanied by the recurrent laryngeal nerve - passes superior-ward upon the trachea deep to the inferior pharyngeal constrictor muscle to reach the posterior surface of the larynx.^{[citation needed]} At the inferior border of the inferior pharyngeal constrictor muscle, the artery enters the larynx.

The artery supplies the muscles and mucosa of the larynx.

It forms anastomoses with its contralateral partner, and the superior laryngeal branch of the superior thyroid artery.

Tracheal branches