The Innervation and Vascular Supply of the Antrum

Abstract

An attempt has been made to obtain information about the condition of the pulp of teeth, immediately below the bony incision, made in the lateral antral wall in radical antrotomy, and to investigate the conditions obtaining in the vascular supply of that neighbourhood. The investigation has two parts: (1) Experimental; (2) Clinical. Experimental.—( a) Injections of specimens of the superior maxillæ were made with lipiodol, then X-rayed. These showed vascular anastomoses along the antral floor. ( b) Sections of the lateral antral wall and floor were cut and stained to show nerves and blood spaces. ( c) The external carotid artery was injected with Prussian Blue and the maxilla then removed. ( d) Transverse sections of the teeth denervated were cut and their pulps examined. Clinical.—The patients who had been submitted to operation were taken, and their teeth examined by:— ( a) Transillumination. ( b) Percussion. ( c) Thermal tests. ( d) Faradic currents. ( e) Radiography. From these investigations it appears that the teeth are denervated but not devitalized by the trauma to the lateral antral wall above their apices. Their blood-supply is still present, and probably comes through a collateral anastomosis, along the antral floor and partly through the antral mucosa.