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Thyroarytenoid muscle

 
Medical Dictionary: thyroarytenoid muscle

n.

A muscle with origin from the inner surface of the thyroid cartilage, with insertion into the muscular process and the outer surface of the arytenoid muscle, with nerve supply from the recurrent laryngeal nerve, and whose action shortens the vocal cords.

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Wikipedia: Thyroarytenoid muscle
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Thyroarytenoid muscle
Musculusthyreoarytenoideus.png
Muscles of the larynx, seen from above.
Latin musculus thyroarytenoideus
Gray's subject #236 1083
Origin Inner surface of the thyroid cartilage (anterior aspect)
Insertion    Anterior surface of arytenoid cartilage
Artery
Nerve recurrent laryngeal branch of the vagus
Actions helps to adduct the vocal folds during speech

The Thyroarytenoid is a broad, thin, muscle which lies parallel with and lateral to the vocal fold, and supports the wall of the ventricle and its appendix.

Contents

Origin and insertion

It arises in front from the lower half of the angle of the thyroid cartilage, and from the middle cricothyroid ligament.

Its fibers pass backward and laterally, to be inserted into the base and anterior surface of the arytenoid cartilage.

Parts of thyroarytenoid

The lower and deeper fibers of the muscle can be differentiated as a triangular band which is inserted into the vocal process of the arytenoid cartilage, and into the adjacent portion of its anterior surface; it is termed the Vocalis, and lies parallel with the vocal ligament, to which it is adherent.[1]

A considerable number of the fibers of the Thyreoarytænoideus are prolonged into the aryepiglottic fold, where some of them become lost, while others are continued to the margin of the epiglottis. They have received a distinctive name, Thyreoepiglotticus or Thyroepiglottic, and are sometimes described as a separate muscle. [2]

A few fibers extend along the wall of the ventricle from the lateral wall of the arytenoid cartilage to the side of the epiglottis and constitute the Ventricularis muscle.

Actions

The Thyreoarytœnoidei, consisting of two parts having different attachments and different directions, are rather complicated as regards their action.

Their main use is to draw the arytenoid cartilages forward toward the thyroid, and thus relax and shorten the vocal folds.

But, owing to the connection of the deeper portion with the vocal fold, this part, if acting separately, is supposed to modify its elasticity and tension, while the lateral portion rotates the arytenoid cartilage inward, and thus narrows the rima glottidis by bringing the two vocal folds together.

Additional images

References

  1. ^ Vocalis+muscle at eMedicine Dictionary
  2. ^ Thyroepiglottic+muscle at eMedicine Dictionary

External links

This article was originally based on an entry from a public domain edition of Gray's Anatomy. As such, some of the information contained herein may be outdated.


 
 

 

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Medical Dictionary. The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Thyroarytenoid muscle" Read more