Shah Setu P, Mehta Deval
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, College of Dental Sciences and Research Centre, Manipur, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.
Ann Maxillofac Surg. 2020 Jul-Dec;10(2):444-449. doi: 10.4103/ams.ams_19_20. Epub 2020 Jun 18.
The retromolar fossa is a small triangular area posterolateral to 3rd molar region in the mandible. The retromolar fossa often contains the retromolar foramen (RMF) as an anatomical variant. When the RMF is present, the foramen is connected with the mandibular canal (MC) through another canal known as the retromolar canal (RMC). RMC contains neurovascular bundle, which gives additional supply to the mandible. Although few studies have been conducted in past, a lacunae in comprehensive review is lacking. Although, these variations posed challenging situations for the practicing surgeons, they have been quite neglected and not well presented in textbooks. Hence, we made an attempt to provide a comprehensive and consolidated review regarding RMF and RMC.
The relevant articles were selected by hand search and electronic media (Google scholar, PubMed, Science Direct, Medline, Embase and Cochrane) from 1987 to 2019. All the relevant articles were properly screened and findings were extracted from the articles.
There seems to be wide variations in morphology and morphometry of RMF and RMC.
Detailed knowledge of these anatomical variations is important in surgical procedure involving the retromolar area to protect the patient from complications such as unexpected bleeding, hematoma formation, and nerve damage. Furthermore, its knowledge makes us understand about the failed inferior alveolar nerve block, spread of infection, and metastasis in case of carcinoma. When there is any suspicious alteration in the MC, we suggest more accurate examination technique like CBCT.
磨牙后窝是下颌骨第三磨牙区域后外侧的一个小三角形区域。磨牙后窝常包含磨牙后孔（RMF）这一解剖变异。当存在RMF时，该孔通过另一条称为磨牙后管（RMC）的管道与下颌管（MC）相连。RMC包含神经血管束，为下颌骨提供额外的血供。尽管过去进行的研究较少，但缺乏全面的综述。虽然这些变异给外科医生带来了挑战，但它们一直被相当忽视，在教科书中也没有很好的呈现。因此，我们试图提供一篇关于RMF和RMC的全面综合综述。
通过手工检索和电子媒体（谷歌学术、PubMed、科学Direct、Medline、Embase和Cochrane）从1987年至2019年筛选相关文章。对所有相关文章进行适当筛选，并从文章中提取研究结果。
RMF和RMC在形态和形态测量方面似乎存在很大差异。
详细了解这些解剖变异在涉及磨牙后区的手术中很重要，可保护患者避免出现意外出血、血肿形成和神经损伤等并发症。此外，了解这些知识有助于我们理解下牙槽神经阻滞失败、感染扩散以及癌症转移的情况。当MC出现任何可疑改变时，我们建议采用更精确的检查技术，如锥形束计算机断层扫描（CBCT）。
