carotid canal

Sympathetics to the head from the superior cervical ganglion also pass through the carotid canal.

More specifically, it is located in the temporal bone, posterior to the carotid canal and the aquæductus cochleæ.

In the skull, the posterior foramen for the internal carotid canal is located midway along the basisphenoid-pterygoid suture.

The caroticotympanic nerves are nerves which supply the eardrum ("tympanum") and carotid canal.

The internal carotid runs vertically upward in the carotid sheath, and enters the skull through the carotid canal.

The carotid canal is the passage way in the temporal bone through which the internal carotid artery enters the middle cranial fossa from the neck.

Involvement of the petrous segment of the carotid canal is associated with a relatively high incidence of carotid injury.

The canal starts on the inferior surface of the temporal bone at the external opening of the carotid canal (also referred to as the carotid foramen).

They are almost exclusively observed when the carotid canal is fractured, although only a minority of carotid canal fractures result in vascular injury.

While both branches travel upward, the internal carotid takes a deeper (more internal) path, eventually travelling up into the skull to supply the brain via the carotid canal.

The cervical segment, or C1, of the internal carotid extends from the carotid bifurcation until it enters the carotid canal in the skull anterior to the jugular foramen.

The deep petrosal nerve (large deep petrosal nerve) is given off from the carotid plexus, and runs through the carotid canal lateral to the internal carotid artery.

The internal carotid artery passes superiorly from the carotid canal in the base of the skull, emerging via that part of the foramen lacerum which is not occluded by cartilage.

In the bony ridge dividing the carotid canal from the jugular fossa is the small inferior tympanic canaliculus for the passage of the tympanic branch of the glossopharyngeal nerve.

It is located behind the carotid canal and is formed in front by the petrous portion of the temporal, and behind by the occipital; it is generally larger on the right than on the left side.

The caroticotympanic branch (tympanic branch) is small; it enters the tympanic cavity through a minute foramen in the carotid canal, and anastomoses with the anterior tympanic branch of the internal maxillary, and with the stylomastoid artery.

The superior end of it is continued upward through the carotid canal into the skull, and forms a plexus on the internal carotid artery; the inferior part travels in front of the coccyx, where it converges with the other trunk at a structure known as the ganglion impar.

It arises from the petrous ganglion, and ascends to the tympanic cavity through a small canal, the fossula petrosa/tympanic canaliculus, on the under surface of the petrous portion of the temporal bone on the ridge which separates the carotid canal from the jugular fossa.

The artery is separated from the bony wall of the carotid canal by a prolongation of dura mater, and is surrounded by a number of small veins and by filaments of the carotid plexus, derived from the ascending branch of the superior cervical ganglion of the sympathetic trunk.