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Tonsils
Last reviewed: 20.07.2023
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Tonsils: lingual and pharyngeal (unpaired), palatine and tubal (paired) - located at the entrance to the pharynx from the oral cavity and from the nasal cavity, i.e. On the way to food and inhaled air. Food before splitting into amino acids, simple sugars and emulsified fats is an alien product for the body. In the inhaled air there are always a small amount of dust and other foreign particles. In addition, along with food and inhaled air, microorganisms and products of their vital activity can enter the human body. Thus, the tonsils forming a pharyngeal lymphoid ring (the Pirogov-Valdeier ring) around the entrance to the pharynx are important organs of the immune system, which are the first to come into contact with foreign substances entering the human digestive and respiratory tract.
Tonsils are clusters of lymphoid tissue, containing smaller sizes of denser cell masses - lymphoid nodules.
The lingual tonsil lingualis is unpaired, it lies under the multilayered epithelium of the mucous membrane of the root of the tongue, often in the form of two clusters of lymphoid tissue. The border between these clusters on the surface of the tongue is the sagittally oriented median sulcus of the tongue, and in the depth of the organ is the septum of the tongue.
The palatine tonsilla palatum is located in the amygdala fossa tonsillaris, which is a depression between the divergent downward slanted tongue in the front and the hypogastric arch in the back. Above the amygdala, between the initial sections of these archs, there is a triangular-shaped supramaxial fossa (fossa supratonsillaris), which sometimes forms a rather deep bag-shaped pocket. The palatine tonsil has an irregular shape, close to the shape of the almond nut. The largest length (13-28 mm) of the palatine tonsil is noted in 8-30-year-olds, and the largest width (14-22 mm) is 8-16 years.
The pharyngeal (adenoid) tonsil (tonsilla pharyngeals, s.adenoidea) is unpaired, located in the region of the arch and partly the posterior pharyngeal wall, between the right and left pharyngeal pockets (Roshenmuller fossae). In this place there are 4-6 transversely and obliquely oriented thick folds of the mucosa. Inside these folds is the lymphoid tissue of the pharyngeal tonsil.
The tubal tonsil (tonsilla tubaria) is a paired, aggregate of lymphoid tissue in the form of an interrupted plate in the thickness of the mucous membrane of the tube roller, in the region of the pharyngeal opening and the cartilaginous part of the auditory tube. The amygdala consists of diffuse lymphoid tissue and a few lymphoid nodules. The mucous membrane above the amygdala is covered with ciliated (multicellular ciliated) epithelium. Pipe tonsil is fairly well expressed in a newborn (its length is 7.0-7.5 mm), and its greatest development reaches 4-7 years.