Week 2: Skull, Head And Neck

Question 1

What are the three major regions?

Answer 1

Skull, vertebrate column (back area), thoracic cage (upper paper of body)

Question 2

What is a suture?

Answer 2

A hole or dip between two pieces of bone (line where two bones join so little groove)

Question 3

What is a foramina?

Answer 3

A hole but bigger than suture

Question 4

Sinus meaning

Answer 4

Enclosed space in skull

Question 5

What is a process

Answer 5

‘Sticky out’ bit

Question 6

What is a canal?

Answer 6

Have veins and arteries running through them

Question 7

What is a fissure?

Answer 7

Very narrow canal (holding vessels/arteries)

Question 8

What does ‘infra’ mean?

Answer 8

Below or inferior

Question 9

What does supra mean?

Answer 9

Above/superior

Question 10

What are the two sets of bones in skull?

Answer 10

1. Cranial bones; enclose the cranial cavity, protect brain/organs in head
   - cranial vault: big bit on outside, bang things off when hit head
   - cranial base: anterior/middle/posterior cranial fossae, 3 spaces inside cranium allow organs to sit inside
   - provide site of attachment for head/neck muscles
2. Facial Bones: framework of face, cavities for sense organs, site of attachment teeth and muscles

Question 11

Bones of cranium;

Answer 11

• Coronal suture= from one side of the head over the top towards the other side of the head just behind the eye
• Squamous suture= on temporal bone, suture that goes between the lambdoid and the coronal
• Lambdoid suture= goes towards the back of the head which comes up towards squamous

Question 12

What is name of opening of head (hole) which you can see pulsing in babies as suture is not fully formed yet (not fully closed over)

Answer 12

A Fontanelle

Question 13

What are the cranial bones? (8)

Answer 13

• Frontal bone (front of head)
• 2 Parietal bones (top & side of head)
• Occipital bone (back of head)
• 2 Temporal bones (side of head beside ears)
• Sphenoid bone (near back of eyes)
• Ethmoid bone (in middle where nose comes out of and get smell)

Question 14

What and where is frontal bone?

Answer 14

• huge, thick bone to stop brain getting damaged
• anterior portion of cranium
• most of anterior cranial fossa
• contains air-filled frontal sinus to make head lighter (less heavy)
• superior wall and root of orbit

Question 15

What and where is parietal bone?

Answer 15

• concerned with sides of head, kind of like middle piece of jigsaw.
• Four sutures; 1. Coronal suture (between partietal bones and frontal bone), 2. Sagittal suture (between left and right parietal bones), 3. Lambdoid suture (between parietal and occipital bone), 4.Squamous sutures (between parietal and temporal bones on each side of skull)

Question 16

What and where is occipital bone?

Answer 16

• mostly at the back of the skull and posterior cranial fossa
• Part of the brain that controls vision is called occipital cortex located in here so any damage to back of head can damage eyesight
• articulates with 1st vertebra(of neck in spine)
• site of attachment for neck and back muscles so get tightness/pain here when migraine

Question 17

What and where is the temporal bone?

Answer 17

• At the side of the head
• inferior-lateral aspects of skull and part of cranial floor
• four main regions;
  1. Squamous
  2. Tympanic (around ear)
  3. Mastoid (around jaw)
  4. Petrous (inside head)

Question 18

What and where is sphenoid bone?

Answer 18

• articulates with all other cranial bones
• between the frontal and temporal bones/occipital bone
• bat-shaped complex bone
• 3 pairs of processes; 1. Greater wings, 2. Lesser wings, 3. Pterygoid processes

Question 19

What and where is the ethmoid bone?

Answer 19

• deepest skull bone
• Superior part of nasal septum, roof of nasal cavities
• contributes to medial wall of orbits (where eyes sit)
• can’t see it until break into skull

Question 20

What and where are sutural bones?

Answer 20

• Tiny irregular-shaped bones that appear within sutures

- Little fragments

Question 21

What is he hole where spine goes called

Answer 21

The foremen magnum

Question 22

Where does the optic canal sit where optic nerve goes through?

Answer 22

Body of sphenoid bone

Question 23

Where is superior orbital fissure and what travels through there?

Answer 23

• located in body of sphenoid bone
• a lot of nerves and blood supply come from here
• fractures and tumours here will press on those nerves and arteries

Question 24

Fractures where can affect eye muscles?

Answer 24

Medial wall