Optic Nerve, Topographic Anatomy

Abstract

The optic canal represents from the point of view of practical medicine an important, and biologically interesting portal between the insides of cranium and eye cavity: through the short canal a nerve together with its layers and the ophthalmic artery reach the orbita. A corresponding large vein does not exist. In newborns it is like a canal outlet to the intracranial side which in the mid-canal region and in the orbital exit looks like a rounded and on-point standing triangle or ellipse. The average length of the upper wall of the canal is 5.13 mm and of the lower wall 4.0 mm. Especially during the first two years of life the penetrating cylinder grows to a one-sided and, on the cerebral opening, flattened cylinder.

Supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft