Ganglion oticum

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The ganglion oticum (from the Greek ganglion "nerve knot", "overbone "; us "ear"; "ear knot") is a parasympathetic ganglion in the infratemporal fossa near the base of the skull and on the mandibular nerve near the foramen ovale .

Parasympathetic part

The otic ganglion gets its fibers from the parasympathetic part of the IX. Cranial nerve , the glossopharyngeal nerve , which originates from the inferior salivary nucleus . This releases a tympanic nerve into the middle ear, which there forms the tympanic plexus ( plexus tympanicus ) with sympathetic fibers from the superior cervical ganglion . The minor petrosus nerve extends from the middle ear to the otic ganglion. The connection of the glossopharyngeal nerve with the otic ganglion is also known as Jacobson's anastomosis .

After switching in the ganglion to the postganglionic neuron , the fibers move to the auriculotemporal nerve and use this, actually purely sensitive, nerve pathway as a path to the parotid (parotid gland), which is parasympathetically (secretory) innervated. Some of the parasympathetic fibers use the buccal nerve as a route to the cheek glands.

Ganglion oticum as a distribution station

In addition to this actual parasympathetic component, several motor and sensitive branches of the mandibular nerve run through the otic ganglion. However, these have no functional relationship to this autonomous ganglion , but only use it as a distribution station.

Individual evidence

  1. Ulrike Bommas-Ebert, Philipp Teubner, Rainer Voß: Short textbook anatomy and embryology . Georg Thieme Verlag, 2006, ISBN 978-3-13-135532-4 , p. 126.