The Human Larynx at the End of the Embryonic Period Proper

Abstract

The laryngeal cavity was studied in eight serially sectioned embryos of stage 23 and in three early fetuses, and graphic reconstructions were prepared. After the isolation of the tracheal from the pharyngeal cavity during stages 16 through 22, a communication (not necessarily the pharyngotracheal duct) appears again during stage 23. At this time (8 postovulatory weeks) the laryngeal cavity comprises 1) the coronal and parts of the sagittal clefts of the vestibule (uniting later at the laryngeal inlet); 2) the ventricles, which are not yet completely formed; and 3) the subglottic cavity, which appeared already in earlier stages. The characteristic events of stage 23 are the dissolution of the epithelial lamina and the development of the ventricles. The disruption of the epithelial lamina is an active process that comprises rearrangement and growth, but not loss of cells. The ventricles, which begin as solid outgrowths in stage 20, do not represent fifth pharyngeal pouches. They now point toward the middle of the still paired thyroid laminae and are not at the level of the future glottis, which lies more caudally. In the absence of the median part of the soft palate, the nasopharynx communicates widely with the oral cavity. The epithelium of the respiratory tube, including the larynx, resembles that of the pharynx and esophagus in being pseudostratified columnar and showing a clear basement membrane. It is ciliated over that part of the epiglottis that surmounts the arytenoid swellings, and also over the tip and back of the latter. The transitional area between the laryngopharynx and the esophagus is already innervated by the recurrent laryngeal nerve. Nerve fibers have not yet reached the epithelium of the coronal cleft and the ventricles, but fibers are present near the sagittal cleft of the vestibule. The sensory innervation of the pharynx and larynx has been followed and plotted for the first time in an embryo, and previously unrecorded silver-impregnated receptors have been observed.

Keywords

embryology laryngeal cavity laryngeal innervation

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