Anatomy study note · Head and neck

Sphenoid bone

A butterfly-shaped bone in the centre of the skull base, with a body (containing the sphenoid sinuses) and greater and lesser wings and pterygoid processes.

Key points

• Sella turcica = pituitary.
• Optic canal, superior orbital fissure, foramina rotundum (V2), ovale (V3), spinosum (MMA).
• Sphenoid air sinuses in the body.
• Sphenoid: mostly cartilage; lateral greater wing + pterygoid plates membrane.
• Bone: type I collagen + hydroxyapatite.
• Osteoblast builds, osteocyte maintains, osteoclast resorbs.

The full note in the atlas also covers

Features · Histology · Development

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Written from

• Snell’s Clinical Anatomy by Regions, 10th ed., ch. 12, PDF pp. 1489, 1494–1496
• Inderbir Singh’s Human Embryology, ch. 10, PDF pp. 140–141
• BRS Cell Biology & Histology, 7th ed., ch. 7, PDF pp. 121–125, 130; ch. 15, PDF p. 269

More from the head and neck

• Sternocleidomastoid
• Sternohyoid
• Sternothyroid
• Stylohyoid
• Stylopharyngeus
• Subclavian artery
• Subclavian vein
• Sublingual gland
• Submandibular gland
• Superficial and regional cervical lymph nodes
• Superior oblique
• Superior rectus

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