Summary
During the gross anatomy dissection of the submental region, an anatomical variation of the right digastric muscle was found. This muscle had three bellies. Whereas the anterior and posterior bellies had their normal origin and course and were joined by an intermediate tendon, the accessory anterior belly originated from the digastric fossa and a thin tendon together with the anterior belly was inserted onto the hyoid bone. This kind of variation can easily be confused with pathological conditions. For this reason, knowledge of the muscular anatomy and variations of the floor of the mouth is helpful when evaluating the base of the skull with CT and MR imaging.
Résumé
Au cours de la dissection macroscopique de la région submentale, une variation anatomique touchant le m. digastrique droit a été trouvée. Ce muscle avait trois ventres. Alors que les ventres antérieur et postérieur avaient une origine et un trajet normaux et étaient reliés par un tendon intermédiaire, le ventre antérieur accessoire naissait de la fosse digastrique par un fin tendon, commun au ventre antérieur, et se terminait sur l'os hyoïde. Ce type de variation peut aisément être confondu avec des situations pathologiques. Pour cette raison, la connaissance de l'anatomie musculaire et des variations du plancher oral est utile dans l'exploration du crâne en tomodensitométrie et en IRM.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Çelik HH, Yilmaz E, Atasever A, Durgun B, Taner D (1992) Bilateral anatomical anomaly of anterior bellies of digastric muscles. Acta Anat Nippon 67: 650–651
Larsson SG (1985) Hemiathropy of the tongue and floor of the mouth demonstrated by computed tomography. J Comput Assist Tomogr 9: 914–918
Larsson SG, Lufkin RB (1987) Anomalies of digastric muscles: CT and MR demonstrations. J Comput Assist Tomogr 11: 422–425
Mast HL, Haller JO, Solomon M (1992) Benign lesions of the mandibular and maxillary region in children: characterization by CT and MRI. Comput Med Imag Graph 16: 1–9
Michna H (1989) Anatomical anomaly of human digastric muscles. Acta Anat 134: 263–264
Muraki AS, Mancuso AA, Harnsberger HR, Johnson LP, Meads GB (1983) CT of the oropharynx, tongue base and the floor of mouth: normal anatomy and range of variations and applications in staging carcinoma. Radiology 148: 725–731
Rauber A, Kopsch F (1955) Lehrbuch und Atlas der Anatomie des Menschen, vol 1. Thieme, Stuttgart
Testut L (1894) Trattato di anatomia umana, vol. 1. Unione Tipografico, Torino
Traini M (1983) Bilateral accessory digastric muscles. Anat Clin 5: 199–200
Waern A (1935) Contribution a la connaissance des muscles interposés entre les ventres anterieurs des digastriques chez l'homme et présentation d'un projet de denomination pour ceux-ci. Arch Anat Histol Embryol (Strasb) 20: 325–337
Williams PL, Warwick R, Dyson M, Bannister LH (1989) Gray's Anatomy, 37th edn. Churchill Livingstone, New York
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sargon, M., Çelik, H. An abnormal digastric muscle with three bellies. Surg Radiol Anat 16, 215–216 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01627599
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01627599