Median thyrohyoid ligament at a glance
- What it is
- The thickened midline part of the thyrohyoid membrane.
- Location
- Runs from the thyroid notch to the hyoid body.
- Function
- Strengthens the thyrohyoid membrane in the midline.
- Body system
- Respiratory · single, midline structure
- FMA ID
- FMA55138 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- A small bursa lies between it and the back of the hyoid body, which eases movement of the larynx during swallowing.
- The pre-epiglottic fat space lies behind it.
Structures next to the median thyrohyoid ligament
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Hyo-epiglottic ligament · respiratory
- Thyro-epiglottic ligament · respiratory
- Epiglottis · respiratory
- Thyro-arytenoid · muscular
- Thyroid cartilage · respiratory
- Thyrohyoid · respiratory
- Vocal ligament · respiratory
- Vocalis · muscular
- Hyoid bone · skeletal
- Cuneiform cartilage · respiratory
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Median thyrohyoid ligament (FMA55138). 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.