Ligament · Neck

Thyrohyoid membrane

Membrana thyrohyoidea

A broad fibro-elastic sheet filling the space between the upper border of the thyroid cartilage and the hyoid bone above it, so that the whole larynx hangs from the hyoid by this membrane. It is thickened in the midline as the median thyrohyoid ligament and at each posterior edge as the lateral thyrohyoid ligaments, which often contain a small grain of cartilage. Its most consequential feature is that it is pierced: the internal laryngeal nerve and the superior laryngeal vessels pass through it on each side, so this membrane is the doorway for the sensory supply to everything above the vocal folds.