The maxillary artery and the lateral pterygoid muscle: the New Zealand story

The finding of 2 cases of bilateral asymmetry among the 53 bilaterally dissected cadavers led to the consideration of each “hemi-head” as a single entity. This increased the sample size. Statistical analysis of the data, systematically broken down by sex and by side, showed that the second part of the maxillary artery is more likely to lie deep to the lower head of the lateral pterygoid muscle in females than in males, and that “side” is irrelevant.