Ligament · Neck

Hyoepiglottic ligament

Ligamentum hyoepiglotticum

A short elastic band tying the front of the epiglottis to the back of the body of the hyoid bone. It is a tether rather than a joint ligament: it fixes the lower front of the epiglottic cartilage, so that when the hyoid is drawn upward and forward during a swallow the epiglottis is carried with it and tips back across the airway. The same band forms the floor between the valleculae, the two small pockets that sit either side of the midline where the tongue base meets the epiglottis.