Facial nerve
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This is the seventh cranial nerve and is a mixed nerve. It arises from the lateral part of the corpus trapezoideum immediately behind the pons.
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It passes outwards across the fifth cranial nerve and in front of the eighth cranial nerve and enters the internal auditory meatus with it. At the bottom of this meatus the two nerves get separated and the facial nerve enters the facial canal passes in it at first, directed outward, then curves backward and ventrally into the posterior wall of the tympanum to end at the stylo mastoid foramen.
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The bent part of the nerve is the genu and bears at its highest point the geniculate ganglion. After its emergence through the stylo mastoid foramen, the nerve passes forward and outward under the parotid salivary gland where it terminates into dorsal and ventral buccal nerves.
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Last modified: Wednesday, 2 May 2012, 7:03 AM