Last session we were studying the contours and texture of our skin as the container of our body. We were sequencing from a full exploration of the never-ending enveloping structure of the skin that would progress one step as a time into the fascia layer, then muscle, and eventually bone. While focused on the elasticity of the skin as a casing, the scalp felt different than other areas. It felt more slippery and mobile. We equated the sliding motion to the thinness of the layer of skin layer before touching fascia, and revealed the lack of muscle in that area. There is only connective tissue and tendons attaching to the facial muscles, but no muscles on the actual scalp. We had to look up the fascia layers and anatomy of the scalp. We discovered a helpful map of the skin on the scalp and an acronym to remember the layers of tissue on the scalp:
The skin of the scalp continues from the front and lateral side of the face into the occipital region of the skull posteriorly. The makeup of the scalp is important clinically because trauma to the scalp is frequent and it is up to the clinician to determine by palpation and observation just how serious the trauma is.
The scalp is made of 5 layers and they spell scalp:
The blood vessels travel through the dense connective. The connective tissue has a special relationship with the arteries in this area. When an artery is severed, the connective tissue fibers around the vessel contract and pull the artery open. This results is more hemorrhage than in other places. With scalp hemorrhage, compression must be used to stop the bleeding. Blood vessels and nerves come into the scalp from three different regions: 1) anterior (supraorbital), 2) lateral (superficial temporal), 3) posterior (occipital). There is free anastomoses from side to side. With all of this blood supply, lacerations of the scalp are usually profuse and because of the nerve supply, very sensitive.