Uvula
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At the time the article was created Olurotimi Komolafe had no recorded disclosures.
View Olurotimi Komolafe's current disclosuresAt 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- Palatine uvula
The uvula is a small, conical, pendulous process projected inferiorly from the midline posterior margin of the soft palate. It is primarily formed from the insertions of the two muscles of the uvula and their covering mucosa.
On this page:
Summary
location: posterior midline soft palate
blood supply: from ascending palatine and pharyngeal arteries
innervation: sensory from the lesser palatine nerve (CN Vb)
Arterial supply
The uvula is supplied by branches of the arteries that supply the soft palate:
palatine branch of the ascending pharyngeal artery
greater palatine branch of the internal maxillary artery
Innervation
motor: muscle of the uvula: vagus nerve via the pharyngeal plexus
sensory: lesser palatine nerve (from CN Vb) via the pterygopalatine ganglion
Function
The function of the uvula is to contribute to palatopharyngeal closure as part of deglutition 4.
Variant anatomy
elongated uvula 6,7: is a rare finding that may present with symptoms such as chronic cough and obstructive sleep apnea; recurrent upper airway obstruction by the elongated uvula can also mimic asthma in children; uvulectomy is the mainstay of treatment and is curative
-
bifid uvula 6,7: up to 2% of the population
associated with cleft palate, hypoplasia of the pharyngotympanic tube orifice and absence of the salpingopharyngeal folds
History and etymology
Uvula is Latin for "little grape" and is the diminutive form of the Latin word "uva" meaning grape 3.
See also
References
- 1. Rajiv Paliwal, Satish Patel, Purvesh Patel et-al. Elongated uvula and diagnostic utility of spirometry in upper airway obstruction. (2010) Lung India. 27 (1): 30. doi:10.4103/0970-2113.59266 - Pubmed
- 2. Sridhara Narayanan D, Narendrakumar V. An Unusual case of an elongated uvula causing difficulty during mastication. (2019) J. Pharm. Sci. & Res. 11(2), 566-567.
- 3. Robert K. Barnhart, Sol Steinmetz. Chambers Dictionary of Etymology. (1999) ISBN: 9780550142306
- 4. Chummy S. Sinnatamby. Last's Anatomy. (2020) ISBN: 9780702033957
- 5. GEORGE S. RICHARDSON, E. MARKEY PULLEN. THE UVULA: Its Structure and Function and Its Importance. (1948) Archives of Otolaryngology. 47 (4): 379. doi:10.1001/archotol.1948.00690030401001
- 6. Susan Standring. Gray's Anatomy. ISBN: 9780702052309
- 7. R. Shane Tubbs, Mohammadali M. Shoja, Marios Loukas. Bergman's Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Human Anatomic Variation. (2016) ISBN: 9781118430354
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