Distribution and direction of the blood vessel in the canine vocal cord. ...an x-ray investigation...(author's transl)

Abstract

The purpose of the present paper is to investigate the blood vessel distribution in the vocal cord, especially from the functional point of view as a vibrator.After the contrast medium was infused through bilateral common carotid artery, the larynx was excised and fixed. The softex contact microradiography was performed on the specimens which were cut out in sagittal, horizontal and frontal plane. The observations were mainly focused upon the free edge of the vocal cord. The microradiograms gave the following results:(1) The canine larynx is supplied by three major arteries, that is, superior laryngeal artery, cricothyroid branch and inferior laryngeal artery. The latter two are branched from superior thyroid artery.(2) The peripheral branches of these arteries anastomose each other in the larynx and make arterial networks here and there. Especially, on the level of the false cord and the vocal cord, the arterial networks appear to be arterial rings.(3) It should be emphasized that there is a clear-cut separation of the blood supply between the mucous membrane and the muscle layer near the free edge of the vocal cord. In other word, the vessels of the mucous membrane run backward from the anterior commissure forward from the posterior part of the vocal cord, and little vessels come in the mucosa from the underlying muscle.The direction of the vessels is almost parallel to the edge of the vocal cord. On the other hand, the vessels of the muscle layer chiefly run almost vertical to the edge of the vocal cord. Since the mucosa near the edge of the vocal cord moves most significantly during the vibration, the pattern of the distribution and direction of the blood vessels described above appears to be suitable for high frequency vibrations