The right recurrent laryngeal nerve loops around which structure?

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The right recurrent laryngeal nerve, a branch of the vagus nerve, travels down into the chest and then loops upward to reach the larynx. On the right side, it hooks around the right subclavian artery before ascending in the tracheoesophageal groove to innervate the intrinsic muscles of the larynx (except the cricothyroid) and provide sensory fibers below the vocal cords. This looping around the subclavian artery explains why the right subclavian artery is the structure the nerve wraps around. It does not loop around the common carotid artery, the brachiocephalic trunk, or the aortic arch on the right side (the left RLN loops around the aortic arch instead).