Cricoid cartilage
Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data
Citation:
Spencer T, Hacking C, Yu Y, et al. Cricoid cartilage. Reference article, Radiopaedia.org (Accessed on 17 Mar 2025) https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-44514
rID:
44514
Article created:
26 Apr 2016,
Tom Spencer
Disclosures:
At the time the article was created Tom Spencer had no recorded disclosures.
View Tom Spencer's current disclosures
Last revised:
Disclosures:
At the time the article was last revised Craig Hacking had the following disclosures:
- Philips Australia, Paid speaker at Philips Spectral CT events (ongoing)
These were assessed during peer review and were determined to not be relevant to the changes that were made.
View Craig Hacking's current disclosures
Revisions:
21 times, by
11 contributors -
see full revision history and disclosures
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The cricoid cartilage is a ring-shaped laryngeal cartilage that sits below the thyroid cartilage and above the tracheal rings, at the level of the C6 vertebra. It is the only complete cartilaginous ring of the whole airway.
Gross anatomy
It consists of a thinner anterior portion, called the arch and a broad flattened posterior portion called the lamina. The lamina articulates superiorly with the the arytenoid cartilages and laterally with the inferior horn of the thyroid cartilage by synovial joints. It is attached to the other laryngeal cartilages by muscles and tendons.
Attachments
Muscular
Intrinsic muscles:
Extrinsic muscles:
cricopharyngeus muscle (component of the inferior pharyngeal constrictor)
Ligamentous
Intrinsic ligaments:
cricovocal membrane (conus elasticus)
Extrinsic ligaments:
cricothyroid membrane, which is thickened medially as the median cricothyroid ligament
cricotracheal ligament
Anatomical variants
arch of cricoid cartilage 5
Quiz questions
error
References
- 1. Mcminn. Last's Anatomy. Elsevier Australia. (2003) ISBN:0729537528. Read it at Google Books - Find it at Amazon
- 2. Moore KL, Agur AMR, Dalley AF. Clinically oriented anatomy. LWW. ISBN:1451119453. Read it at Google Books - Find it at Amazon
- 3. Butler P, Mitchell A, Healy JC. Applied Radiological Anatomy. Cambridge University Press. (2012) ISBN:0521766664. Read it at Google Books - Find it at Amazon
- 4. Mathews S, Jain S. Anatomy, Head and Neck, Cricoid Cartilage. [Updated 2019 Mar 13]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2019 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK539821/
- 5. Garbelotti JS, Garbelotti RP, Garbelotti LB, Garbelotti MS, Garbelotti AeAL, Garbelotti dML, Garbelotti. Arch of cricoid cartilage anatomical variation: morphological and radiological aspects. (2019) Surgical and radiologic anatomy : SRA. doi:10.1007/s00276-018-2174-2 - Pubmed
- 6. Shibin Mathews & Sameer Jain. Anatomy, Head and Neck, Cricoid Cartilage. StatPearls Publishing. 2022. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK539821/ - Pubmed
Incoming Links
Articles:
- Squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx
- Laryngeal cartilages
- Cartilage
- Arytenoid cartilage
- Larynx
- Pharynx
- Thyroid gland
- Thyroid cartilage
- Esophagus
- Subglottis
- Thoracic lymph node stations
- Lymph node levels of the neck
- Killian dehiscence
- True vocal cords
- Laryngeal carcinoma (staging)
- Pyriform sinus
- Hypopharynx
- Stellate ganglion block
- Hypopharyngeal carcinoma (staging)
- Postcricoid region
Cases:
- Cricoid chondronecrosis after intubation
- Fractured cricoid cartilage
- Laryngeal cartilages (Gray's illustrations)
- Cricoid cartilage fracture
- Squamous cell carcinoma of larynx with transglottic spread - T4
- Foreign body in neck
- Cricoid plate ossification mimicking an impacted foreign body
- Cricoid cartilage fracture
- Larynx (illustration)
Multiple choice questions:
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