Osteology

Question 1

What is a suture?

Answer 1

A fibrous joint

Question 2

Which bones of the skull are pneumatised?

Answer 2

Frontal, temporal, sphenoid and ethmoid, maxilla

Question 3

What is the purpose of sinuses?

Answer 3

Reduce weight of the skull
Provide resonance space for our voice

Question 4

What is the neurocranium?

Answer 4

Bony case of the brain including cranial meninges with a domelike roof and a floor

Question 5

What is the viscerocranium?

Answer 5

Anterior part of the cranium that consists of bones surrounding the oral cavity, nasal cavity and most of the orbit

Question 6

What is the vertex?

Answer 6

The superior point of the neurocranium

Question 7

What is the Frankfort horizontal plane?

Answer 7

The anatomical position of the skull where a horizontal line can be drawn between the superior margin of the external acoustic meatus and the inferior margin of the orbit

Question 8

Where is bregma located?

Answer 8

Junction between sagittal and coronal sutures

Question 9

What is lambda?

Answer 9

Where the sagittal and lambdoid sutures join

Question 10

What is the inion?

Answer 10

The most prominent part of the external occipital protuberance

Question 11

What is the asterion?

Answer 11

Star-shaped junction of three sutures between occipital, parietal and temporal bones

Question 12

What is the nasion?

Answer 12

Where the frontonasal and internasal sutures meet

Question 13

What is the glabella?

Answer 13

The smooth part of the frontal bone superior to the root of the nose and between the superciliary arches above the brows

Question 14

What is the pterion?

Answer 14

H-shaped junction of sutures between frontal, temporal, greater wing of sphenoid and parietal

Question 15

What is the clinical significance of the pterion in terms of a skull fracture?

Answer 15

The pterion is a thin area of the skull which overlies the middle meningeal artery - trauma can lead to extradural haematoma which can exert pressure on the brain.

Question 16

What is a Wormian bone?

Answer 16

Small island of bone within a cranial suture.

Question 17

Which cranial nerves pass through the jugular foramen?

Answer 17

CN IX, X, XI

Question 18

What does foramen magnum transmit?

Answer 18

The spinal cord, meninges, vertebral and spinal arteries, and the spinal root of accessory nerve (CN VI)

Question 19

What passes through the foramen spinosum?

Answer 19

Middle meningeal artery and vein and meningeal branch of CNV3

Question 20

What are the choanae?

Answer 20

The posterior nasal apertures

Question 21

How many vertebrae make up the cervical spine?

Answer 21

7

Question 22

What is the role of the ligamentum nuchae?

Answer 22

Attaches external occipital protuberance and foramen magnum to spinal processes of the cervical vertebrae.
Supports the head and resists flexion.
Is an attachment point for muscles.

Question 23

Which cervical vertebrae are atypical?

Answer 23

C1 (atlas), C2 (axis), C7 (vertebrae prominens)

Question 24

Describe the spinous process of C7

Answer 24

Non-bifid

Question 25

What passes through the foramen transversarium of C1-C6?

Answer 25

Vertebral artery

Question 26

Describe the movements that the lateral atlanto-axial joint permits

Answer 26

Rotation of head (side to side)

Question 27

Describe the movements that the atlanto-occipital joint permits

Answer 27

Flexion and extension (nodding)

Question 28

What level of the neck is the hyoid bone found at?

Answer 28

C3