Week 13 Head and Neck

Osteology of Skull and Cranial Cavity

Case: A 12-year-old girl is brought to the E.D. with fever and swelling around her right eye. The pupil of the right eye is deviated medially. A history reveals that the patient was distressed over an acne breakout on her face in the region just lateral to the right nostril.

This patient is suffering from an infection of the right cavernous sinus. Which cranial nerve is afflicted, resulting in medial deviation of the eyeball?

Cranial nerve 6

Describe the route taken by the pathogens on the face as they travelled intracranially to reach the cavernous sinus.

facial veins to deep facial vein to cavernus sinus

Sample test questions:

1. The region of the skull located medial to the ramus of the mandible and lateral to the lateral pterygoid plate is the:

A. infratemporal fossa

B. pterygopalatine fossa

C. nasal cavity

D. oral cavity

E. orbit

2. V1, the ophthalmic division of C.N. V, enters the orbit by passing through the:

A. optic foramen

B. Superior orbital fissure

C. inferior orbital fissure

D. foramen rotundum

E. foramen ovale

3. The supraobital, infraorbital and mental nerves are composed of:

A. motor and sensory fibers

B. motor, sensory and preganglionic parasympathetic fibers

C. motor, sensory and preganglionic sympathetic fibers

D. motor fibers only

E. sensory fibers only