Anatomy study note · Head and neck

Pharyngeal constrictors

Three overlapping curved muscles forming the wall of the pharynx, inserting into the pharyngeal raphe.

Key points

• Superior, middle, inferior — each outside the one above.
• Insert into the pharyngeal raphe.
• Vagus (pharyngeal plexus).
• Cricopharyngeus = lower sphincter.
• Pharyngeal wall muscles: 3rd and later arches.
• Skeletal muscle: multinucleated, peripheral nuclei, striated.
• Epimysium → perimysium → endomysium.

The full note in the atlas also covers

Origin · Insertion · Action · Nerve supply · Histology · Development

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Written from

• Snell’s Clinical Anatomy by Regions, 10th ed., ch. 12, PDF pp. 1757–1760
• Inderbir Singh’s Human Embryology, ch. 9, PDF p. 125; ch. 12, PDF p. 173
• BRS Cell Biology & Histology, 7th ed., ch. 8, PDF pp. 135–144

More from the head and neck

• Pharynx
• Phrenic nerve
• Pineal body
• Piriform cortex
• Pituitary gland
• Platysma
• Pons
• Postcentral gyrus
• Posterior cerebral artery
• Posterior cricoarytenoid
• Precentral gyrus
• Retina

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