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The first 25 slides, exactly as they appear. The full deck has 40 content slides.
Ophthalmology
Anatomy and Lesions of Facial Nerve
Built from Khurana — Neuro-Ophthalmology

What’s inside
6 sections · 40 slides
Overview
- What this topic covers
Anatomy of the Facial Nerve
Functional parts, the three nuclei, and the roots
- Four kinds of fibre travel together
- Three nuclei: the control centres
- Main motor nucleus and its two-sided control
- Voluntary vs emotional facial movement
- Facial nerve nuclei and central connections in the pons
- Facial nuclei among the brainstem columns
- Parasympathetic nuclei: tears and saliva
- Sensory nucleus: the taste receiver
Course and Distribution
From brainstem, through the petrous bone, out to the face
- Two roots leave the brainstem
- Into the internal acoustic meatus
- Three parts and two bends inside the petrous bone
- Facial nerve branches within the facial canal
- Extracranial course through the parotid gland
Branches of the Facial Nerve
Inside the canal, at the foramen, and on the face
- Inside the canal (1): greater petrosal nerve
- Inside the canal (2): stapedius and chorda tympani
- At the stylomastoid foramen
- Five terminal branches within the parotid
- Terminal branches of the facial nerve on the face
- Communicating branches
Associated Ganglia
Relay stations for taste and gland control
- Geniculate and submandibular ganglia
- Pterygopalatine (sphenopalatine) ganglion
- The three 'roots' feeding the ganglion
- Branches of the sphenopalatine ganglion
Lesions of the Facial Nerve
Above the nucleus versus below it – and how to localise
- Supranuclear lesions: forehead is spared
- Upper- versus lower-motor-neuron facial weakness
- Infranuclear (lower motor neuron) lesions
- Common causes of infranuclear palsy
- Localising the lesion by what is lost
- Named syndromes and higher lesions
- Clinical bottom line
- Summary: the whole nerve at a glance
- References
- Neuro-Ophthalmology