Cranial foramina
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View Jeremy Jones's current disclosuresAt the time the article was last revised Henry Atkinson had no financial relationships to ineligible companies to disclose.
View Henry Atkinson's current disclosures- Cranial foramen
The cranial foramina are the holes that exist in the skull to allow the passage of structures into and out of the cranium. Some clefts/fissures, which are not entirely surrounded by bone, and canals, which are longer than their diameter, are often included in this category.
Most cranial foramina are at the base of skull:
-
foramen cecum (variable)
-
foramen Vesalii (variable)
foramen lacerum (with occipital and temporal bones)
-
-
jugular foramen (with occipital bone)
Dorello canal (with sphenoid bone)
mastoid foramen (variable)
Additional cranial foramina include congenital calvarial defects, such as parietal foramen.
Other foramina in the skull are not strictly related to the cranium (bones surrounding the intracranial cavity) but rather to the bones of the face and jaw:
-
multiple bones
inferior orbital fissure (sphenoid, maxilla, palatine bone, zygoma)
-
zygoma
-
maxilla
incisive foramen (or canals)
-
palatine bone
sphenopalatine foramen (with sphenoid)
palatovaginal canal (with sphenoid)
-
mandible
References
- 1. Gray's Anatomy 39th Edition, Elsevier
- 2. Schulte E. Thieme Atlas of Anatomy. Thieme Georg Verlag. (2007) ISBN:3131421010. Read it at Google Books - Find it at Amazon
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