The pituitary fossa hypophyseal fossa is an indentation in the roof of the body of the sphenoid bone in the middle cranial fossa.
Floor view skull hypophyseal fossa.
The sella turcica lies within the body of the sphenoid bone which has a wedgelike shape and looks like a key that slots into the floor of the skull.
It is a depression in the body of the sphenoid which holds the pituitary gland.
It is a large square of bone pointing upwards and forwards.
It has numerous foramina and harbours the pituitary gland.
The rounded depression in the floor of the sella turcica is the hypophyseal pituitary fossa which houses the pea sized pituitary hypophyseal gland.
The sphenoid bone is found as part of the posterior part of the anterior cranial fossa as well as the middle cranial fossa.
The dorsum sellae back of the saddle forms the posterior wall of the sella turcica.
The greater wings of the sphenoid bone extend laterally to either side away from the sella turcica where they form the anterior floor of the middle cranial fossa.
Openings through the skull in the floor of the middle fossa include the optic canal and superior orbital fissure which open into the posterior orbit the foramen rotundum foramen ovale and foramen spinosum and the exit.
The greater wings of the sphenoid bone extend laterally to either side away from the sella turcica where they form the anterior floor of the middle cranial fossa.
It is bound anteriorly by the tuberculum sellae in front of which lies the sulcus chiasmatica and posteriorly by the dorsum sellae a ridge of bone at either end of which lies the posterior clinoid processes.