Conus elasticus at a glance
- What it is
- An elastic membrane of the larynx.
- Location
- Extends upward from the cricoid cartilage inside the thyroid cartilage.
- Function
- Supports the vocal folds and subglottic airway.
- Body system
- Respiratory · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA55252 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Its free upper edge forms the vocal ligament.
- Its thickened midline part is the median cricothyroid ligament, the landmark for emergency cricothyrotomy.
- It is also called the cricovocal membrane or lateral cricothyroid ligament.
Structures next to the conus elasticus
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Cricoid cartilage · respiratory
- Vocal ligament · respiratory
- Vocalis · muscular
- Straight part of cricothyroid · muscular
- Lateral crico-arytenoid · muscular
- Oblique part of cricothyroid · muscular
- Posterior crico-arytenoid · muscular
- Arytenoid cartilage · respiratory
- Thyroid cartilage · respiratory
- Transverse arytenoid · muscular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Conus elasticus (FMA55252). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §22.1 Organs and Structures of the Respiratory System. Rice University, 2022.
- Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.
Related anatomy
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.