The Sutton’s Foramen of the Oblique Line of Mandible

Although the foramina of the adult mandible are well known and extensively studied, still additional foramina and canals could persist from the fetal stage and be detected occasionally in adult. At a routine anatomical evaluation of the Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) scan of a female patient of 47 years old, a rare anatomical variant of the mandible was found, and is presented here. It was termed foramen lineae obliquae and it was found in the right hemimandible at the level of the second molar, on the oblique line. From that foramen a canal continued within the mandible to join the mandibular canal. On orthogonal slices was accurately detected that the content of that foramen and canal was connected to an intramasseteric network, which was strongly suggestive for that content being vascular. Although a contribution from the buccal nerve could not be withdrawn, the most reasonable content to speculate is the aberrant anastomotic artery of the facial and inferior alveolar arteries. Vascular foramina of the mandible are relevant during various surgical procedures. Surgeons should be aware that if an artery is commonly regarded as a supplier of a muscle inserted on the mandible, it should not be rejected a priori the possibility for that artery being also an extrinsic supplier of the mandible, through an unexpected foramen in the vicinity of that muscle.