Misplaced Pages

Pterygomaxillary fissure

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Fissure of the human skull
Pterygomaxillary fissure
Left infratemporal fossa. (Pterygomaxillary fissure labeled at bottom left.)
Details
Identifiers
Latinfissura pterygomaxillaris
TA98A02.1.00.026
TA2430
FMA76627
Anatomical terminology[edit on Wikidata]

The pterygomaxillary fissure is a fissure of the human skull. It is vertical, and descends at right angles from the medial end of the inferior orbital fissure. It is a triangular interval, formed by the divergence of the maxilla from the pterygoid process of the sphenoid.

It connects the infratemporal with the pterygopalatine fossa, and transmits the terminal part of the maxillary artery. The posterior superior alveolar nerve of the maxillary nerve goes from the pterygopalatine fossa to the infratemporal region via this fissure. The pterygopalatine plates are separated laterally from the posterior surface of the body of the maxilla by the pterygomaxillary fissure.

In older texts, the pterygomaxillary fissure is sometimes called the pterygopalatine fissure.

References

Public domain This article incorporates text in the public domain from page 185 of the 20th edition of Gray's Anatomy (1918)

External links

Compound structures of skull
Neurocranium
Facial skeleton
Both
Foramina of the skull (and canals, fissures, meatus, and hiatus)
Anterior cranial fossa
to Orbit:
to Nasal cavity:
Middle cranial fossa
to Orbit:
to Pterygopalatine fossa:
to Infratemporal fossa:
other:
Posterior cranial fossa
Orbit
to Nasal cavity:
to face:
to Pterygopalatine fossa:
other:
Pterygopalatine fossa
to Nasal cavity:
to Oral cavity:
to Infratemporal fossa:
to Nasopharynx:
to oral cavity:
to nasal cavity:
Other
Portal:


Stub icon

This human musculoskeletal system article is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

Categories: