Abstract
In the anatomy textbooks and atlases in use today there are many discrepancies in the description of the auriculotemporal nerve, in the formation of its roots, in its terminal branching, and in its means of communicating with the otic(sic) ganglion. Among the many accounts of the auriculotemporal nerve consulted, there is found a sterotyped description of the nerve indicating that it is formed by two immediately adjacent roots which tightly enclose the middle meningeal artery forming a "botton-hole" appearance. Not one contains the typical situation and variations presented to a dissector of the nerve. The only definitive paper on the auriculotemporal nerve is a short abstract by Tufano (1949) briefly discussing the fiber composition of the auriculotemporal nerve with regard to myelinated and non-myelinated fibers. In this he alludes to future planned work on the auriculotemporal nerve. Neither a search of the most recent literature, nor an attempt at personal correspondence turned up any further work which Tufano may have done on the auriculotemporal nerve. It seems apparent that present day texts and atlases have simply accepted as true the earlier descriptions of the auriculotemporal nerve, and, therefore, contain the incompleteness, inaccuracies, and contradictions of the older works. One is, therefore, left with the problem of correlating the facts presented in the texts and atlases with the facts presented at the dissection table.