Anatomy of the Mandibular Ramus of the Facial Nerve-based upon a study of 126 cervicofacial halves

This paper presents the anatomical data relating to the mandibular ramus of facial nerve studied by meticulous dissection on 126 cervicofacial halves of cadavers. While reviewing the applied anatomy of this nerve it was observed that the description given in the standard text books of Anatomy including those of Surgical Anatomy is rather fragmentary and inadequate and is not in conformity with the present data. The nerve is constantly a branch of cervicofacial division of facial nerve and has been invariably found a little below and behind the gonion. However, it was observed abutting the angle or even placed deep to it when the angle is everted. The ramus is not a solitary fasciculus but is made up of a number of filaments inter-communicating with each other before converging to form a single, a double or even triple twigs. In relation to the external surface of body of mandible, it may lie either on the outer surface just above the lower border or all along its inferior border and sometimes even looping down in the diagastric triangle with its terminal part ascending upward to enter the facial region at the antero-inferior angle of the masseter muscle. Here it is closely related to facial artery and its accompaying anterior facial vein, with its ramifications in between these structures to end in the muscles acting on the lower lip