Information about Pharynx

Head and neck.
Pharynx
subject #244 1141
Arteryascending pharyngeal, ascending palatine, descending palatine
Veinpharyngeal veins
Nervepharyngeal plexus
MeSH Pharynx
Dorlands/Elsevier p_16/12633198
The pharynx (plural: pharynges) is the part of the neck and throat situated immediately posterior to the mouth and nasal cavity, and cranial, or superior, to the esophagus, larynx, and trachea.

Functions

It is part of the digestive system and respiratory system of many organisms.

Because both food and air pass through the pharynx, a flap of connective tissue called the epiglottis closes over the trachea when food is swallowed to prevent choking or aspiration. In humans the pharynx is important in vocalization.

Parts

The human pharynx is conventionally divided into three sections:

Nasopharynx

The nasopharynx lies behind the nasal cavity.

Postero-superiorly this extends from the level of the junction of the hard and soft palates to the base of skull, laterally to include the fossa of Rosenmuller.

The inferior wall consists of the superior surface of the soft palate.

Oropharynx

The oropharynx lies behind the oral cavity.

Hypopharynx

The hypopharynx, also known as the laryngopharynx roughly corresponds to the levels between C3 to C6, it includes the pharyngo-esophageal junction (postcricoid area), the piriform sinus, and the posterior pharyngeal wall.

Like the oropharynx above it the hypopharynx serves as a passageway for food and air and is lined with a stratified squamous epithelium.

It lies directly anterior to the upright epiglottis and extends to the larynx, where the respiratory and digestive pathways diverge.

At that point the laryngopharynx is continuous with the esophagus posteriorly. The esophagus conducts food and fluids to the stomach; air enters the larynx anteriorly. During swallowing, food has the "right of way", and air passage temporarily stops.

Additional images


Conducting passages.

Organs of the digestive system.

The entrance to the larynx, viewed from behind.

Sagittal section of nose mouth, pharynx, and larynx.

The position and relation of the esophagus in the cervical region and in the posterior mediastinum. Seen from behind.


References

  • Stedman's/LWW 1551471
  • Human Anatomy and Physiology Elaine N. Marieb and Katja Hoehn, Seventh Edition.
  • TNM Classification of Malignant Tumours Sobin LH & Wittekind Ch (eds)Sixth edition UICC 2002 ISBN 0-471-22288-7

See also

External links

Arteries are muscular blood vessels that carry blood away from the heart.[1] All arteries, with the exception of the pulmonary and umbilical arteries, carry oxygenated blood.

The circulatory system is extremely important for sustaining life.
..... Click the link for more information.
The ascending pharyngeal artery, the smallest branch of the external carotid, is a long, slender vessel, deeply seated in the neck, beneath the other branches of the external carotid and under the Stylopharyngeus.
..... Click the link for more information.
The ascending palatine artery is an artery in the head that branches off the facial artery and runs up the superior pharyngeal constrictor muscle.

Structure

The ascending palatine artery arises close to the origin of the facial artery and passes up between the
..... Click the link for more information.
The descending palatine artery is an artery of the head.

Course

It descends through the pterygopalatine canal with the anterior palatine branch of the sphenopalatine ganglion, and, emerging from the greater palatine foramen, runs forward in a groove on the medial side of
..... Click the link for more information.
vein is a blood vessel that carries blood toward the heart. The majority of veins in the body carry low-oxygen blood from the tissues back to the heart; the exceptions being the pulmonary and umbilical veins which both carry oxygenated blood.
..... Click the link for more information.
The pharyngeal veins begin in the pharyngeal plexus on the outer surface of the pharynx, and, after receiving some posterior meningeal veins and the vein of the pterygoid canal, end in the internal jugular.
..... Click the link for more information.
A nerve is an enclosed, cable-like bundle of axons (the long, slender projection of a neuron). Neurons are sometimes called nerve cells, though this term is technically imprecise since many neurons do not form nerves, and nerves also include the glial cells that
..... Click the link for more information.
The pharyngeal plexus is a network of nerve fibers supplied by the pharyngeal branch of vagus nerve joining with branches from the pharyngeal branches of glossopharyngeal nerve, sympathetic fibers, and the external laryngeal nerve.
..... Click the link for more information.
Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) is a huge controlled vocabulary (or metadata system) for the purpose of indexing journal articles and books in the life sciences. Created and updated by the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), it is used by the MEDLINE/PubMed
..... Click the link for more information.
Elsevier, the world's largest publisher of medical and scientific literature, forms part of the Reed Elsevier group. Based in Amsterdam, the company has substantial operations in the UK, USA and elsewhere.
..... Click the link for more information.
The neck is the part of the body on many limbed vertebrates that distinguishes the head from the torso or trunk.

Anatomy of the human neck

Bony anatomy: The cervical spine

The cervical portion of the human spine
..... Click the link for more information.
In anatomy, the throat is the part of the neck anterior to the vertebral column. It consists of the pharynx and larynx. An important feature of the throat is the epiglottis, a flap which separates the oesophagus from the trachea and prevents inhalation of food or drink.
..... Click the link for more information.
mouth, also known as the buccal cavity or the oral cavity, is the orifice through which an organism takes in food and water.

Location

In all mammals, the mouth is forward-facing in the face. Non-mammals have mouths in other locations (e.g.
..... Click the link for more information.
The nasal cavity (or nasal fossa) is a large air-filled space above and behind the nose in the middle of the face.

Function

The nasal cavity conditions the air to be received by the areas of the respiratory tract.
..... Click the link for more information.
Cranial may refer to:
  • Anatomical terms of location
  • Cranial Osteopathy

..... Click the link for more information.
The esophagus (also spelled oesophagus/œsophagus, Greek οἰσοφάγος), or gullet
..... Click the link for more information.
The larynx (plural larynges), colloquially known as the voicebox, is an organ in the neck of mammals involved in protection of the trachea and sound production.
..... Click the link for more information.
trachea, or windpipe, is a tube that has an inner diameter of about 20-25 mm and a length of about 10-16cm. It extends from the larynx to the primary (main) bronchi in mammals, and from the pharynx to the syrinx in birds, allowing the passage of air to the lungs.
..... Click the link for more information.
The digestive system is the organ system that breaks down and absorbs nutrients that are essential for growth and maintenance. The digestive system includes the mouth, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, liver, gallbladder, duodenum, jejunum, ileum, (intestines), rectum, and anus.
..... Click the link for more information.
respiratory system generally includes tubes, such as the bronchi, used to carry air to the lungs, where gas exchange takes place. A diaphragm pulls air in and pushes it out. Respiratory systems of various types are found in a wide variety of organisms.
..... Click the link for more information.
Food is any substance, usually composed primarily of carbohydrates, fats, water and/or proteins, that can be eaten or drunk by an animal or human being for nutrition or pleasure.
..... Click the link for more information.
Earth's atmosphere is a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth and retained by the Earth's gravity. It contains roughly (by molar content/volume) 78% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.
..... Click the link for more information.
The epiglottis is a lid-like flap of elastic cartilage tissue covered with a mucus membrane, attached to the root of the tongue. It projects obliquely upwards behind the tongue and the hyoid bone.
..... Click the link for more information.
Choking
Classification & external resources

ICD-10 F41.0, R06.8, T17, W78-W80
ICD-9 784.9 , 933.1

For choking meaning compression of the neck, see Strangling. For other usage of choking, see choke.

..... Click the link for more information.
In medicine, aspiration is the entry of secretions or foreign material into the trachea and lungs. The patient may either inhale the material, or it may be blown into the lungs during positive pressure ventilation or CPR.
..... Click the link for more information.
Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism.
If you are prevented from editing this page, and you wish to make a change, please discuss changes on the talk page, request unprotection, log in, or .
..... Click the link for more information.
Vocalization may refer to:
  • Speech communication
  • Vocal music
  • A type of animal communication involving their vocal chords
  • L-vocalization, a process by which an /l/ sound (a lateral consonant) is replaced by a vowel or semivowel sound
  • Tiberian vocalization

..... Click the link for more information.
The nasopharynx (nasal part of the pharynx) lies behind the nose and above the level of the soft palate: it differs from the oral and laryngeal parts of the pharynx in that its cavity always remains patent (open).
..... Click the link for more information.
The nasal cavity (or nasal fossa) is a large air-filled space above and behind the nose in the middle of the face.

Function

The nasal cavity conditions the air to be received by the areas of the respiratory tract.
..... Click the link for more information.
Behind the ostium of the auditory tube is a deep recess, the pharyngeal recess (fossa of Rosenmüller).

Clinical significance

At the base of this recess is the retropharyngeal lymph node (the Node of Rouvier.
..... Click the link for more information.


This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
Herod_Archelaus


page counter