Anatomy of the maxillary artery into the pterygomaxillopalatine fossa.

The trajectory and ramifications of the maxillary artery near to and in the pterygomaxillopalatine (pterygopalatine, pterygomaxillar) fossa are reported by the authors through transmaxillary and endonasal microdissections of thirty heads from Brazilian males. They observed that always close to the maxillary tuberosity, the maxillary artery reaches the medial wall of the fossa, after tortuous and complex trajectory as a network around the nervous ramifications. They found on average of 11 branches from the maxillary artery in the fossa. The posterior superior alveolar and descending palatine arteries were observed as the largest branchs from the maxillary artery near to and in the fossa, while the thinnest branche was the artery of the round canal. The infraorbital and posterior superior alveolar arteries were verify as a common trunk in 27 cases (45.00%). The dehiscence of the posterior wall of the maxillary sinus, produced by the infraorbital artery was observed in 1 case (1.66%). In 53 cases (88.33%) the maxillary artery bifurcated in sphenopalatine and descending palatine branches, while in 7 cases (11.66%) was present the trifurcation. The sphenopalatine bifurcation in septal and posterior lateral nasal arteries inside the fossa was found in 54 cases (90.00%), and the ramification of the descending palatine artery in lesser palatine branches before of the penetration in the respectives canals, was present in all the cases.