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Infratemporal fossa

Part 2 of 2
Published on July 31, 2024   39 min

Other Talks in the Series: Introduction to Gross Anatomy for Medicine

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0:00
My name is Prof. George Dias. I'm the Professor of Anatomy at the University of Otago, School of Biomedical Sciences. My research is in the area of biomaterials and surgical implants. Today, I'm going to talk about a region in the head called the infratemporal fossa.
0:26
There are two images. On the left is the skull. On the right, the skull with the temporalis muscle and part of the parotid gland is present. First of all, we know the temporal fossa. We have already covered the temporal fossa in my previous talk. The temporal fossa is a plateau which is found on the lateral aspect of the cranium where the temporalis muscle is attached. If you want to describe a space which is situated below the temporal fossa, what shall you call that? Temporal fossa is where the temporalis muscle essentially is attached. Therefore, a region inferior to the temporal fossa, can be called the infratemporal fossa. That is exactly where we are going to look at. In the skull diagram, we will highlight the ramus of the mandible. This is a space that is situated deep to the ramus of the mandible. Essentially, it is an irregularly shaped space lying beneath the base of the skull, situated between the lateral wall of the pharynx and the ramus of the mandible. This space can also be referred to as the parapharyngeal space or the lateral pharyngeal space.

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