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Home  »  Anatomy of the Human Body  »  pages 1080

Henry Gray (1825–1861). Anatomy of the Human Body. 1918.

pages 1080

  The Ventricle of the Larynx (ventriculus laryngis [Morgagnii]; laryngeal sinus) is a fusiform fossa, situated between the ventricular and vocal folds on either side, and extending nearly their entire length. The fossa is bounded, above, by the free crescentic edge of the ventricular fold; below, by the straight margin of the vocal fold; laterally, by the mucous membrane covering the corresponding Thyreoarytænoideus. The anterior part of the ventricle leads up by a narrow opening into a cecal pouch of mucous membrane of variable size called the appendix.
  The appendix of the laryngeal ventricle (appendix ventriculi laryngis; laryngeal saccule) is a membranous sac, placed between the ventricular fold and the inner surface of the thyroid cartilage, occasionally extending as far as its upper border or even higher; it is conical in form, and curved slightly backward. On the surface of its mucous membrane are the openings of sixty or seventy mucous glands, which are lodged in the submucous areolar tissue. This sac is enclosed in a fibrous capsule, continuous below with the ventricular ligament. Its medial surface is covered by a few delicate muscular fasciculi, which arise from the apex of the arytenoid cartilage and become lost in the aryepiglottic fold of mucous membrane; laterally it is separated from the thyroid cartilage by the Thyreoepiglotticus. These muscles compress the sac, and express the secretion it contains upon the vocal folds to lubricate their surfaces.


FIG. 955– The entrance to the larynx, viewed from behind. (See enlarged image)
  The Rima Glottidis (Fig. 956) is the elongated fissure or chink between the vocal folds in front, and the bases and vocal processes of the arytenoid cartilages behind. It is therefore subdivided into a larger anterior intramembranous part (glottis vocalis), which measures about three-fifths of the length of the entire aperture, and a posterior intercartilaginous part (glottis respiratoria).