What is the Pterygomaxillary fossa?

What is the Pterygomaxillary fossa?

The pterygomaxillary fossa is found posterior to the maxillary sinus and inferior to the sphenoid bone and orbital process of the palatine bone. It is lateral to the perpendicular plate of the palatal bone and anterior to the base of the pterygoid process and to the anterior surface of the greater wing of the sphenoid.

Where is the Pterygomaxillary fossa?

The pterygopalatine fossa (PPF) is a small, clinically inaccessible, fat-filled space located in the deep face that serves as a major neurovascular crossroad between the oral cavity, nasal cavity, nasopharynx, orbit, masticator space, and the middle cranial fossa.

What is the clinical significance of the Pterygopalatine fossa?

What is Sphenopalatine fossa?

In human anatomy, the pterygopalatine fossa (sphenopalatine fossa) is a fossa in the skull. A human skull contains two pterygopalatine fossae—one on the left side, and another on the right side. It is the indented area medial to the pterygomaxillary fissure leading into the sphenopalatine foramen.

What nerve goes through the pterygomaxillary fissure?

The pterygomaxillary fissure transmits the posterior superior alveolar nerve, a branch of maxillary division of the trigeminal nerve from the pterygopalatine fossa to the infratemporal fossa. Terminal branches of the maxillary artery also enter the fissure.

What lies in pterygoid fossa?

The lateral and medial pteryoid plates (of the pterygoid process of the sphenoid bone) diverge behind and enclose between them a V-shaped fossa, the pterygoid fossa. This fossa faces posteriorly, and contains the medial pterygoid muscle and the tensor veli palatini muscle.

What passes through the pterygoid fossa?

The pterygoid canal is located on the posterior wall of the pterygopalatine fossa, between the foramen rotundum and the palatine canal. It communicates with the middle cranial fossa and from there, it transmits the nerve, artery, and vein of the pterygoid canal.

What goes through Pterygomaxillary fissure?

The pterygomaxillary fissure is located between the anterior and posterior wall of the pterygopalatine fossa. It communicates with the infratemporal fossa and transmits the posterior superior alveolar nerve and the maxillary artery.

What is a fossa in anatomy?

Fossa – A shallow depression in the bone surface. Here it may receive another articulating bone or act to support brain structures. Examples include trochlear fossa, posterior, middle, and anterior cranial fossa.

Where is the pterygomaxillary fissure located?

The pterygomaxillary fissure is a triangular shaped lateral opening of pterygopalatine fossa. It is located in the medial aspect of the temporal fossa and is formed by the divergence of the maxilla from the pterygoid process of the sphenoid bone.

What connects the infratemporal fossa with the pterygopalatine fossa?

It connects the infratemporal fossa with the pterygopalatine fossa. The pterygomaxillary fissure transmits the posterior superior alveolar nerve, a branch of maxillary division of the trigeminal nerve from the pterygopalatine fossa to the infratemporal fossa.

What is the posterolateral fossa (2)?

However, axial CT studies define a larger fossa, which incorporates the pyramidal-shaped fossa and has its posterolateral margin at the lateral edges of the base of the pterygoid process and the fused pterygoid plates (Fig 1C and D). By conventional usage and in this article, this larger fossa is designated the PPF (2).

What is the shape of the pterygoid canal?

The foramen rotundum and, more inferomedially, the vidian (pterygoid) canal are identified in the sphenoid bone.The superomedial part of the PPF. The PPF is identified with partial volume averaging of the edge of the base of the sphenoid bone. The angular shape of the PPFcan vary slightly depending on the coronal plane of section.