The knowledge of certain anatomical variations is fundamental and any surgeon who operates without that knowledge may encounter difficulty during surgery. In this context, there is the middle meningeal artery (MMA) which also engenders considerable clinical interest due to its location. The MMA is predominantly periosteal, irrigating the bone and dura mater. It enters the floor of the middle cranial fossa through the foramen spinosum, travels laterally through a middle fossa bony ridge, and curves anteriorly over the upper-greater wing of the sphenoid where it divides into parietal and frontal branches at a variable point. Occasionally, the distal segment of the frontal branch may pass through a bony tunnel of variable size. To the best of our knowledge, there is no evidence in the current literature on the incidence of this rare bony tunnel. Therefore, we decided to investigate the incidence of this bony tunnel in 85 dry skulls of adults (both genders) belonging to the didactic collection of the Human Anatomy Laboratory of the Universidade de Santa Cruz do Sul, Brazil. All the skulls were examined bilaterally for the presence or absence of the bony tunnel associated with the distal segment of the frontal branch of the MMA. Of the 85 skulls analyzed, the bony tunnel was present on the right side in 1.18% and on the left side in 5.88% (p = 0.045). Thus, in the studied sample, there was a significant tendency for this bony tunnel to be formed on the left side.
Introduction The degree of myelination (g-ratio) can be useful to the evaluation of the fiber morphology during peripheral nerve regeneration and in studies in the area of microsurgery. Therefore, the aim of this analyze was to investigate the g-ratio of the human hypoglossal nerve. Materials and Methods The hypoglossal nerve was bilaterally analyzed in human specimens obtained from necropsies (6 subjects). The nerves were analyzed using histology, and the morphometric parameters (axon diameter and myelinated fiber diameter) were measured using Image Pro-Plus Software 6.0. Results Quantitative comparison of the g-ratio demonstrated no statistically significant difference between the left and right human hypoglossal nerves. In addition, the values of the g-ratio of both hypoglossal nerves were considerably higher than the normal values for the peripheral nerve fibers. This demonstrates a low degree of myelination of the hypoglossal nerve, bilaterally. Conclusion Knowledge of the variations of the human hypoglossal nerve, are clinically important especially in the area of microsurgery (techniques used for reinnervation).
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