The accessory meningeal artery (also accessory branch of middle meningeal artery, pterygomeningeal artery, small meningeal or parvidural branch) is a branch of the

maxillary artery The maxillary artery supplies deep structures of the face. It branches from the external carotid artery just deep to the neck of the mandible. Structure The maxillary artery, the larger of the two terminal branches of the external carotid artery ...

, sometimes derived from the

middle meningeal artery The middle meningeal artery ('' la, arteria meningea media'') is typically the third branch of the first portion of the maxillary artery. After branching off the maxillary artery in the infratemporal fossa, it runs through the foramen spinosum to ...

Course

It enters the skull through the foramen ovale, and supplies the

trigeminal ganglion A trigeminal ganglion (or Gasserian ganglion, or semilunar ganglion, or Gasser's ganglion) is the sensory ganglion at the base of each of the two trigeminal nerves (CN V), occupying a cavity (Meckel's cave) in the dura mater, covering the trigemi ...

and

dura mater In neuroanatomy, dura mater is a thick membrane made of dense irregular connective tissue that surrounds the brain and spinal cord. It is the outermost of the three layers of membrane called the meninges that protect the central nervous system. ...

Nomenclature

Only about 10% of the blood flowing through this artery reaches intracranial structures. The remaining blood flow is dispersed to extracranial structures around the infratemporal fossa. Reflecting this fact,

Terminologia Anatomica ''Terminologia Anatomica'' is the international standard for human anatomical terminology. It is developed by the Federative International Programme on Anatomical Terminology, a program of the International Federation of Associations of Anatomis ...

lists entries for both "accessory branch of middle meningeal artery" and "pterygomeningeal artery".

References

External links

* * () Arteries of the head and neck {{circulatory-stub