The external carotid artery divides into its two terminal branches behind the neck of the mandible. The branches are the superficial temporal and the internal maxillary arteries. The former pierces the deep fascia under cover of the parotid gland and then ascends over the zygomatic arch. It enters the scalp in a plane superficial to the aponeurosis of the occipitofrontalis muscle. At a variable distance above the zygomatic arch, it divides into a frontal branch going to the forehead and a posterior branch supplying the temporal and parietal regions. The artery and its branches are easily palpated. The accompanying veins are often prominent and mark the course of the artery.

The variety of flaps based on the superficial temporal artery may be classified as follows (Fig. 108.1): (a) flaps using one branch of the artery (i.e., frontal [forehead] or parietal [scalp]); (b) flaps using both branches of the superficial temporal artery (i.e., the bilobar forehead skin and scalp flaps); and (c) flaps using the frontal branch of both superficial temporal arteries to carry large areas of the forehead and scalp to cover the face (i.e., the visor flap) (see Fig. 108.3).