Bones of Skull I & 2 Flashcards
Functions of the skull
Protects brain and special sense organs
Houses upper respiratory and digestive tract
Site of muscle and meninges attachment
Optimum environment to support the brain
What 2 parts make up skull?
Skull = cranium + mandible (and TMJ)
What makes up the cranium?
Cranium = cranial vault/calvaria + fascia skeleton (viscerocranium)
What is the calvaria/cranial vault/Neurocranium?
Part where the brain sits in the bony skull
What does the calvaria split into?
Calvaria = cranial base + neurocranium proper
There is not physical boundary separating them
What ossification forms the cranial base/chondrocranium?
Endochondral ossification
What ossification forms the cranial vault/calvaria/neurocranium?
Intramembranous ossification
What ossification forms the facial skeleton?
Intramembranous ossification
How many bones make up the skull?
8 bones in the neurocranium
14 bones in viscerocranium
Which 8 bones make up the neurocranium? (some are paired)
Frontal (1)
Parietal (2)
Temporal (2)
Occipital (1)
Sphenoid (1)
Ethmoid (1)
How are cranial bones held together?
By fibrous sutures (immovable symphysis/joint)
What is the pterion?
Several sutures meet here making it thin and weak
What can a knock to the temple cause?
Burst the sutures meeting at the pterion and damage the middle meningeal artery
Damage can cause extradural hematoma = serious life threatening bleed between skull and meningeal layers
How does the frontal bone develop?
As 2 bones before fusing together
What are fontanelle?
Large membranous unossified gaps of connective tissue
Function of fontanelle
Allow the fetal head to form through its journey through the birth canal and enable post-natal growth so the brain develops and grows quickly.
What do the anterior fontanelle fuse to form?
Bregma
What do the posterior fontanelle fuse to form?
Lambda
Where do the 2 frontal bones meet?
Metotopic suture (usually disappears)