Facial nerve

Anatomy

1. Facial nerve
Domina Petric, MD

2. Introduction
•Facial nerve (n. facialis) innervates
muscles of the second branchial
arch.
•Gives parasympathetic innervation
to the lacrimal gland,
sumbandibular gland and
sublingual gland.
•Transfers the sense of taste from
the first two thirds of the tongue.

3. Introduction
•Transfers general visceral sense
from nose cavity and soft palate.
•Transfers general sense from the
area behind the ear and from the
external auditory canal.

5. Facial nuclei
nucleus nervi facialis
(special visceral
efferent fibres)
nucleus salivatorius
superior (general
visceral efferent fibres)

6. Facial nuclei
nucleus solitarius (general
and special visceral afferent
fibres)
nucleus spinalis n. trigemini
(general somatic afferent
fibres)

7. Source of the image:
https://image.slidesharecdn.com/facialnerveanatomy-diptiman-
141209031428-conversion-gate02/95/anatomy-of-facial-nerve-14-
638.jpg?cb=1435540262

8. Facial nerve curls three
times:
genu n. facialis (inner knee, around
the nucleus n. abducens)
geniculum n. facialis (in the canalis
n. facialis, near the ganglion geniculi)
knee in the retromandibular fossa
(outer knee, the third knee)

9. Branches of the facial nerve
(from the canalis n. facialis)
n. petrosus major (sense of taste from palatinal
mucosa, parasympathetic fibres for lacrimal
gland)
n. stapedius (motor fibres for stapedial muscle)
chorda tympani (SVA fibres)

10. Plexus intraparotideus
(innervates mimic muscles)
•rr. temporales (temporal branches)
•rr. zygomatici (zygomatic branches)
•rr. buccales (buccal branches)
•r. marginalis mandibularis
(mandibular branch)
•r. coli (r. cervicalis, cervical branch)

11. Pes anserinus minor (plexus
intraparotideus)
Source of the image:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/05/04/70/050470f2620b1830b0743e76de76c9cd.jpg

12. Literature (sources)
•Radiopaedia. org
•Krmpotić-Nemanić J. Marušić A.
Anatomija čovjeka, Medicinska
naklada, Zagreb, 2007.