Pharyngeal raphe at a glance
- What it is
- The pharyngeal raphe is a midline fibrous seam on the posterior wall of the pharynx.
- Location
- It runs vertically down the back of the pharynx from the pharyngeal tubercle of the occipital bone.
- Function
- It is where the pharyngeal constrictor muscles of both sides meet and insert.
- Body system
- Digestive · single, midline structure
- FMA ID
- FMA55077 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- The three pharyngeal constrictors insert into it.
- It is attached above to the pharyngeal tubercle on the basilar part of the occipital bone, in front of the foramen magnum.
Structures next to the pharyngeal raphe
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Palatopharyngeus · muscular
- Longus capitis · muscular
- Intervertebral disk of axis · skeletal
- Superior oblique part of longus colli · muscular
- Intervertebral disk of third cervical vertebra · skeletal
- Lateral thyrohyoid ligament · respiratory
- Middle pharyngeal constrictor · muscular
- Hyoid bone · skeletal
- Anterior cervical intertransversarii · muscular
- Thyrohyoid membrane · respiratory
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Pharyngeal raphe (FMA55077). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §23.1 Overview of the Digestive 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.
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.