This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Passavant's ridge" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message) The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's general notability guideline. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. Find sources: "Passavant's ridge" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Passavant's ridge^[1] is a mucous elevation situated behind the floor of the naso-pharynx.

Anatomy

It is also known as Passavant's pad or palatopharyngeal ridge. The prominence of mucous tissue is formed by the contraction of superior constrictor during swallowing. Palatopharyngeus muscle originates from the upper surface of the palatal aponeurosis by anterior and posterior fascicle, which are separated by the insertion of levator veli palatini. Both fasciculi join laterally to form a single muscle that passes downward and backward under cover of the palatopharyngeal arch. In the pharynx, it joins with the salpingopharyngeus muscles and is inserted. A few fibers of palatopharyngeus muscle sweep backward under cover of the Passavant's ridge and form a U-shaped sling of palatopharyngeal sphincter. When the soft palate is elevated it comes in contact with ridge, the two together closing pharyngeal isthmus between nasopharynx and oropharynx.^[2]

References