Blood supply of flat bones

Abstract

These may consist of only a thin lamella of hard tissue, as in the case of the nasal conchae covered with a mucous membrane. India ink perfusion shows that the bony plates in these instances get their blood supply from the overlying periosteal vessels. The two periosteal vascular plexuses, sandwiching a bony conchal lamina, are only infrequently joined together by solitary perforating capillaries. Usually, flat bony laminae, however thin, consist of two bony plates with an interposed medullary layer, as for example, the perpendicular plate of the ethmoid and the vomer in the nasal septum (Fig. 7.1). Their vascularization is analogous to that of the much thicker flat bones of the cranial vault.