IV.B.3 Head: CN VII Page 1 of 5

Objectives:

3.3.1 Identify the foramen through which the facial nerve exits the cranial cavity and include the components of the facial nerve.

3.3.2 Identify the branches of the facial nerve.

3.3.3 Predict the functional deficits, which would result from damage to cranial nerve VII.

Assigned Readings:

Moore's COA: Pages 842-844, 855, 861-863, 901-902, 923-924, 931, 974, 976-977, 979, 1011, 1062-1068, 1077-1078. See the blue boxes on page 1090 for clinical correlations. See the yellow box on page 1079 for "The Bottom Line."

Neuroanatomy: Pages 513-518.

Facial VII

Step 1: Begin with the facial nerve.

The facial nerve CN VII attaches to the lateral surface of the brainstem between the pons and the medula.(See illustration above.)

It consists of a large motor root and a smaller sensory root (the intermediate nerve)

These leave the cranial cavity via the internal acoustic meatus and enter the facial canal of the petrous portion of the temporal bone.

	What other structures pass through the internal acoustic meatus?
The vestibulocochlear nerve - VIII and the labrynthine artery and vein.