ABSTRACT
The facial, retromandibular and external jugular veins of the neck were studied in a total of 230 Chinese cadavers.1. The external jugular vein can be divided into six types and fourteen subtypes. Type Ⅰ(40.22％) and type Ⅲ (29.13％) occurred more frequently in this series.2. The facial vein drains into the external jugular vein in 41.09％. It drains directly or indirectly into the internal jugular vein in 43.91％.3. The anterior branch of the retromandibular vein usually drains into the internal jugular vein and it runs through the space deep to the posterior, belly of the digastric and the stylohyoid muscles in 83.70％.4. The presence of the so called common facial vein occurred only in 29.13％.5. The external jugular vein often drains into the subclavian vein. It appears in 46.57％ in our observation.6. The external jugular vein crosses the inferior belly of the omohyoid muscle, when it runs downwards in the lower part of the external cervical triangle. It usually lies superficial to the omohyoid in 66.16％, deep to it in 26.35％.