60-year-old woman comes to hospital and complains of progressive loss of voice, numbness, loss of taste on back pa of her tongue, and difficulty in shrugging her shoulders. Her MRI scan reveals a dural meningioma that compresses the nerves leaving skull. These nerves leave the skull through which of the following openings?
High-Yield Explanation
Loss of voice is due to an injury to the recurrent laryngeal nerve of vagus nerve; Numbness and loss of taste on the posterior pa of the tongue is due to a lesion of the glossopharyngeal nerve; Inability to shrug the shoulder is due to damage of the accessory nerve. These three cranial nerves exit the skull through the jugular foramen. The foramen spinosum transmits the middle meningeal aery. The foramen rotundum transmits the maxillary division of trigeminal nerve. Internal auditory meatus transmits the facial and vestibulocochlear nerves. Foramen lacerum transmits nothing, but its upper pa is traversed by the internal carotid aery with sympathetic nerve plexus.