What is the infratemporal fossa?
The infratemporal fossa is a complex space of the face that lies posterolateral to the maxillary sinus and many important nerves and vessels traverse it. It lies below the skull base, between the pharyngeal sidewall and ramus of the mandible.
What is the clinical significance of the pterygopalatine fossa?
Clinical aspects Because of its location and associated connections, the pterygopalatine fossa is often involved in the spread of tumours, infections, and inflammations caused by neoplastic diseases in the head and neck (such as juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, bacterial sinusitis, etc.).
What is Pterygoid fossa?
The pterygoid fossa is an anatomical term for the fossa formed by the divergence of the lateral pterygoid plate and the medial pterygoid plate of the sphenoid bone.
What enters the pterygopalatine fossa?
maxillary artery (terminal portion), and its branches including the descending palatine artery. emissary veins. maxillary division of trigeminal nerve (Vb): enters via foramen rotundum. nerve of the pterygoid canal.
What structures does infratemporal fossa communicate with?
The infratemporal fossa is connected to other spaces in the skull. It is connected to the middle cranial fossa by the foramen ovale and the foramen spinosum. It is connected to the temporal fossa, which lies deep to zygomatic arch. It is connected tot he pterygopalatine fossa through the pterygomaxillary fissure.
What does pterygopalatine mean?
Pterygopalatine is used to refer to structures of the pterygoid processes of the sphenoid and the palatine bone. Specifically, it can refer to: Pterygopalatine fossa. Palatovaginal canal (Greater palatine canal or Pterygopalatine canal)
What are the openings of the Pterygopalatine fossa?
The posterior wall of the pterygopalatine fossa has several openings such as the foramen rotundum, the pterygoid canal and the pharyngeal canal. The foramen rotundum forms a communication between the middle cranial fossa and the pterygopalatine fossa and it conducts only one structure – the maxillary nerve.
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.
What divides the temporal and infratemporal fossa?
Bony framework Bones that contribute significantly to the boundaries of the temporal and infratemporal fossae include the temporal, zygomatic, and sphenoid bones, and the maxilla and mandible. The sharply angled boundary between the lateral and inferior surfaces of the greater wing is the infratemporal crest.
Where is the infratemporal fossa found?
Can a subacute infratemporal fossa abscess be treated?
The clinical pictures of this type of infection are quite different from subacute infratemporal fossa abscess, most of those cases are free from systemic symptoms and can be treated with small incision and drainage together with antibiotics.
What kind of infection is temporal space abscess?
Temporal space abscesses are rare deep neck infections1 that can easily create challenges in diagnosis.
Where is the incision to drain a temporal fossa abscess?
An incision was made in the frontal scalp (posterior to the hairline) curved in front of the external auditory canal, and then the abscess in the temporalis muscle and suprazygomatic portion of the masticator space (the temporal fossa) was subsequently drained, and carried down to the zygomatic arch.