Abstract
This chapter will briefly recapitulate the anatomy of the facial nerve. As the facial nerve emerges from cranial nerve (CN)7 as its motoric portion the first part will focus on the anatomical course and diverse targets of CN7. The second part of this chapter contains a detailed description of the facial nerve regarding intracerebral, intracranial, and extracranial anatomical and topological characteristics, and also functional aspects.
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Abbreviations
- acf:
-
Anterior cranial fossa
- an:
-
Great auricular nerve
- ba:
-
Basilar artery
- ca:
-
Internal carotid artery
- cfd:
-
Cervicofacial division
- ch:
-
Cerebellar hemisphere
- cn2:
-
Optic nerve
- cn3:
-
Oculomotor nerve
- cn6:
-
Abducent nerve
- cn7:
-
Facial nerve
- cn8:
-
Vestibulocochlear nerve
- eam:
-
Opening of external acoustic meatus
- ejv:
-
External jugular vein
- fa:
-
Facial artery
- fv:
-
Facial vein
- iam:
-
Ostium of internal acoustic meatus
- in:
-
Infundibulum
- jf:
-
Jugular foramen
- la:
-
Labyrinthine artery
- mcf:
-
Middle cranial fossa
- me:
-
Transition zone of medulla spinalis to medulla oblongata
- mm:
-
Masseter muscle
- mp:
-
Mastoid process
- ob:
-
Olfactory bulb
- of:
-
Oval foramen
- p:
-
Petrous part of temporal bone
- pa:
-
Parotid gland
- pcf:
-
Posterior cranial fossa
- pl:
-
Platysma muscle
- po:
-
Pons
- rm:
-
Retromandibular vein
- s:
-
Sella turcica
- smf:
-
Stylomastoid foramen
- sp:
-
Styloid process
- sta:
-
Superficial temporal artery
- tfa:
-
Transverse facial artery
- tl:
-
Temporal lobe
- va:
-
Vertebral artery
- zm:
-
Zygomaticus major muscle
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We would like to thank S. Meng and B. Maurer-Gesek for their support in image creation.
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Heber, U.M., Weninger, W.J. (2021). Anatomy of the Facial Nerve. In: Tzou, CH.J., RodrÃguez-Lorenzo, A. (eds) Facial Palsy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50784-8_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50784-8_7
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