The ethmoid sits between the eye sockets and forms part of the medial orbital walls, the nasal septum, and the roof of the nasal cavity, containing the cribriform plate through which olfactory nerve fibres pass.
The cribriform plate is the thinnest part of the anterior skull base and the most common site of anterior skull base fractures from frontal trauma, producing cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhoea. Olfactory nerve filaments pass through the cribriform foramina and are sheared by even minor head trauma, causing anosmia. Endoscopic sinus surgery risks penetrating the thin lamina papyracea of the ethmoid into the orbit or through the cribriform plate into the anterior cranial fossa.
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