HYOID BONE
Oluwole Akinola
Hyoid Bone
• A mobile, U-shaped piece of bone
located in the anterior part of the
neck,
• between the tongue above and the
larynx below
• at the level of C3
• Palpation: can be felt in the front of
the neck
• about 2 cm above the laryngeal
prominence
• Does not articulate with
any bone; however,
• it gives attachment to
numerous muscles that
connect it to the
mandible, thyroid
cartilage, temporal styloid
process, sternal
manubrium and scapulae,
and
• These muscles stabilize it
• Stylohyoid ligament:
• connects the styloid process to
lesser horn of hyoid
• Movements:
• Moves up and down with the
tongue during swallowing
• Ossification:
• endochondral;
• most of its ossification centres
appear just prior to birth
• Parts:
• a body,
• a pair of greater and
• a pair of lesser horns
Body of Hyoid
• Elongated and quadrilateral,
• with a convex anterior surface
and a concave posterior one
• It is connected to the greater
horns by cartilage in early life,
but by bone in adults
• Ossification:
• by endochondral mode, from two
centres which appear just before or
after birth
The greater horns of hyoid bone
• Each is a long process directed
posterolaterally from the lateral
part of the body of the hyoid;
• they ascend slightly as they do so
• Are connected to the body of
hyoid by bone after middle age
• Ossification:
• from two centres that usually
arise late in the foetal life
• A pair of conical projections
Lesser Horns of Hyoid • located at the junction of the greater horns
and body of hyoid
• Are directed upwards and backwards
• towards the temporal styloid process
• Each is connected
• to the body of hyoid by fibrous tissue and
• to the greater horn by occasional synovial
joints
• which may be ankylosed
• A stylohyoid ligament connect each lesser
horn to the styloid process of temporal
bone
• Ossification
• Begins to ossify from two centres, around
puberty
• May be partially or wholly cartilaginous in
adults
