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The pterygoid hamulus is a hook-like process at the lower extremity of the medial pterygoid plate of the sphenoid bone of the skull. It is the superior origin of the pterygomandibular raphe , and the levator veli palatini muscle .
The medial pterygoid plate (or medial pterygoid lamina) of the sphenoid bone is a horse-shoe shaped process that arises from its underside.. It is narrower and longer than the lateral pterygoid plate and curves lateralward at its lower extremity into a hook-like process, the pterygoid hamulus, around which the tendon of the tensor veli palatini glides.
The pterygomandibular space is a fascial space of the head and neck (sometimes also termed fascial spaces or tissue spaces). It is a potential space in the head and is paired on each side.
The pterygomandibular raphe (pterygomandibular fold [1] or pterygomandibular ligament) is a thin [2] tendinous band of buccopharyngeal fascia.It is attached superiorly to the pterygoid hamulus of the medial pterygoid plate, and inferiorly to the posterior end of the mylohyoid line of the mandible.
Each medial pterygoid plate (except its hamulus) is ossified in membrane, and its center probably appears about the ninth or tenth week; the hamulus becomes chondrified during the third month, and almost at once ossifies (Fawcett). The medial joins the lateral pterygoid plate about the sixth month.
Hamulus is the diminutive – hooklet or little hook. The plural is hamuli. Adjectives are hamate and hamulate, as in "a hamulate wing-coupling", in which the wings of certain insects in flight are joined by hooking hamuli on one wing into folds on a matching wing. Hamulate can also mean "having hamuli".
The sites of origin of the muscles collectively are the pterygoid hamulus (and occasionally the adjoining posterior margin of the medial pterygoid plate) anteriorly, (the posterior margin of) the pterygomandibular raphe, the posterior extremity of the mylohyoid line of mandible, and (negligibly) the side of the tongue.
Inferiorly, the muscle converges to form a tendon of attachment. This tendon winds medially around the pterygoid hamulus (with a small bursa interposed between the two) to insert into the palatine aponeurosis and into the bony surface posterior to the palatine crest of the horizontal plate of palatine bone. [1]