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Dr. P here talking about the ganglia of the head and neck,

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the parasympathetics,

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their relationship to cranial nerve five.

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There are four of them: ciliary, pterygopalatine,

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submandibular, and otic.

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Remember, with a mnemonic COPS,

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C-O-P-S.

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We're down here at the floor of the mouth and

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working our way up. We've got some tongue.

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And then we get to the region of the palate:

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the hard and the soft palate.

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And this is the hard palate here.

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As soon as we get to the maxillary sinus,

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now we're looking for the optic nerve.

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So let's go there. It's an important landmark,

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the optic foramen.

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And now let's work our way back down from the optic

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foramen, where we get into the inferior

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orbital fissure right there.

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And the inferior orbital fissure is going to

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transition into the pterygomaxillary fissure,

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the pterygopalatine space.

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And in the upper third of this little fat-filled space

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right here, behind the maxillary sinus, as we've

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scrolled from up or craniad, the inferior orbital fissure

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to down, we've reached this important landmark

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where the pterygopalatine ganglion will live,

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also known as Meckel's ganglion,

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the nasal ganglion, and the sphenopalatine ganglion,

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lying in a little fossa or pocket known

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as the pterygopalatine fossa.

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Now, this ganglion has multiple functions.

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The greater petrosal nerve,

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a branch of the 7th, has an important role here,

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as does the maxillary nerve,

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which provides sensory supply to the lacrimal

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region and to the nasal cavity.

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The parasympathetics get there via the nervus

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intermedius, which is part of the 7th nerve.

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But in actuality,

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the supply comes down through the chorda tympani nerve,

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which you've learned in prior vignettes,

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runs in parallel with its traveling partner,

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the lingual nerve,

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which is a branch of cranial nerve five.

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So this is the location behind,

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more or less the upper border of the maxillary sinus.

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These two layers of fat represent bone marrow.

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This is the little fossa right here.

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The ganglion is located in this region.

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We can blow it up a little bit so you could see.

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It's a horizontal coursing space that then will exit

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anterosuperolateral into the inferior orbital fissure.

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And there are other important connections that

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we'll dive into more deeply in other vignettes.

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Dr. P out.