Middle meningeal artery

Middle meningeal artery
Plan of branches of the maxillary artery.
Relations of the brain and middle meningeal artery to the surface of the skull.
Details
Source	internal maxillary artery
Branches	anterior: posterior: superior tympanic artery
Vein	middle meningeal vein
Supplies	meninges
Identifiers
Latin	arteria meningea media
Dorlands /Elsevier	a_61/12155038
TA	A12.2.05.061
FMA	49711
Anatomical terminology []

The middle meningeal artery (Latin: arteria meningea media) is typically the third branch of the first part (retromandibular part) of the maxillary artery, one of the two terminal branches of the external carotid artery. After branching off the maxillary artery in the infratemporal fossa, it runs through the foramen spinosum to supply the dura mater (the outermost meninges) and the calvaria. The middle meningeal artery is the largest of the three (paired) arteries that supply the meninges, the others being the anterior meningeal artery and the posterior meningeal artery.

The anterior branch of the middle meningeal artery runs beneath the pterion. It is vulnerable to injury at this point, where the skull is thin. Rupture of the artery may give rise to an epidural hematoma. In the dry cranium, the middle meningeal, which runs within the dura mater surrounding the brain, makes a deep indention in the calvarium.

The middle meningeal artery is intimately associated with the auriculotemporal nerve, which wraps around the artery making the two easily identifiable in the dissection of human cadavers and also easily damaged in surgery.

It ascends between the sphenomandibular ligament and the pterygoideus externus (lateral pterygoid muscle), and between the two roots of the auriculotemporal nerve to the foramen spinosum of the sphenoid bone, through which it enters the cranium; it then runs forward in a groove on the great wing of the sphenoid bone, and divides into two branches, anterior and posterior.