scalp

Section through the scalp and cranial wall

The collection of soft structures that cover the skull from one temporal line to the other and from the eye-brows to the superior nuchal lines. The constituent parts of the scalp are arranged in five layers:

Skin.
Superficial fascia, containing the vessels and nerves of the skin.
Occipito-frontalis muscle, comprising a pair of occipital bellies united to a pair of frontal bellies by a thin, wide tendinious sheet called the epicranial aponeurosis.
A layer of loose areolar tissue.
Pericranium, which is the perosteum on the outside of the skull.

The scalp is richly supplied with blood vessels and nerves. They all enter from the periphery, passing into the superficial fascia after piercing the deep fascia of the adjacent regions. As a consequence of that arrangement, large flaps of the scalp may be torn from the center toward the margin, but, as long as they remain attached at the periphery, their sources of nourishment are not seriously interfered with, and, if they are cleaned and replaced, healing occurs rapidly and satisfactorily.

Related category

• ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY

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