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Salpingo-palatine fold
brus tubarius
Ostium pharyngeum
Fossa of Roscnmuller
Salpin^o-pharyngeal fold
Levator fold
Soft palate (cut)
Fig. 1.—Medial side of the right torus tubarius and the pharyngeal ostium of the auditory
tube as it lies covered with mucous membrane in the cadaver.
cernible and is always covered by a mucous blanket, which gives the whole the
appearance of being freshly varnished and imparts an orange cast. In the cadaver
the folds are high (fig. 1) and the aperture is sunken, the surrounding shrunken
folds giving no hint that they once were capable of movement.
Behind the torus is the fossa of Rosenmüller, wherein the greatest activity
takes place in the pharynx when the soft palate is closed or relaxed and which,
even in the living subject, varies considerably in depth. When the bar of Passa¬
vant is prominently constricted, as in the closing of the pharyngeal isthmus, the
fossa of Rosemüller is transformed into a digital fossa, unlike the linear one
observed in the cadaver (Townshend 4).
Three structures enter into the formation of the torus tubarius : the nasal
mucous membrane, covered with the mucous blanket, which is kept moving by
the effective strokes of the cilia toward the throat, the muscle fibers, and the blunt
end of the tubai cartilage, which protrudes prominently into the nasopharynx and
3. Schwartzbart, A.: Die fetale und postfetale Tuba Eustachii: Anatomisch-histologische
Untersuchungen, Cracow, Imprimerie de l'Universit\l=e'\, 1938, pp. 1-160.
4. Townshend, R. H.: Formation of Passavant's Bar, J. Laryng. & Otol. 55:154-165,
1940.
Salpinçjo-palatîne fold
Ostium pharyngeum
Fossa of Rosenmüller
outlined
Cartilagethe
shaping torus tubarius
Salpingo-pharyngeus
jHj —-Levator veli palatini
Fig. 2.—Dissection to show the muscle fasciculi of the right torus tubarius after the removal
of the mucous membrane. (Drawn from the cadaver.)
Salpingo palatine
Fig. 3.—Dissection of the muscles of the right eustachian tube and their relation to the
cartilage.
opening, is seen to break in a slitlike opening which bows upward in its center
until it assumes the form of a definite crescent, one sharp limb being anterior and
low, the other posterior and low, the convexity arching upward over the roll
formed by the levator muscle. This slit endures for two fifths of a second in the
act of swallowing and then the edges of the mucous blanket reunite and sweep
on with the cilia toward the throat. All acts of swallowing do not cleft the blanket,
and not all movements of elevation of the soft palate cause the blanket to break.
But with every act in which the pharynx is elevated or the soft palate is raised
tension on the folds of the torus is reduced.
Lateral hooked
cartilage
Fig. 4.—Diagram of the cartilage and the lumen of the eustachian tube and the related
muscles from the right side of the body. The relation of the levator veli palatini muscle to
the cartilage is considerably out of proportion, and its origin from the petrous portion of the
temporal bone is not shown.
The lateral roll of the cartilage which forms the tubai hook is smaller from
the proximal to the distal end than is the medial roll, which may reach a length of
10 or 12 mm. ; but the lateral roll retains its relation to the lumen laterally through
its extent, while the medial roll diminishes distally (toward the ear) in such a
way that near the isthmus, or the union of the cartilaginous with the osseous
portion, the medial roll has so played out that it rides high over the lumen and
actually, at the junction, is larger laterally than medially. The arrangement of
the cartilage with reference to the lumen serves a definite function. In the first
place, the hook serves as a hinge along which the cartilage may be raised or
lowered in one piece, which assures equalization in tension or release of tension
all along the tube and thus permits uniform relaxation throughout the lumen, so
that local areas or bands or segments of the tube will not interfere with adjust¬
ments of air pressure between the tympanum and the nasopharynx.
junction, which has a definite effect on the manner in which the tube is closed and
opened.
SUMMARY
Thecartilage and the lumen of the eustachian tube form a spiral lazy "S" from
the pharynx to the osseous junction which keeps the lumen collapsed against the
laterotubal tissue and hence closed. The gougelike lumen untwists on release of
muscle tension.
The torus tubarius is a "flutter valve" which is actively closed by the tension
of the salpingopalatinus and the salpingopharyngeus muscle.