Dural venous sinuses

Dural venous sinuses
Dural veins
Sagittal section of the skull, showing the sinuses of the dura.
Details
Identifiers
Latin	Sinus durae matris
MeSH	A07.231.908.224
TA	A12.3.05.101
FMA	76590
*Anatomical terminology* [edit on Wikidata]

The dural venous sinuses (also called dural sinuses, cerebral sinuses, or cranial sinuses) are venous channels found between the periosteal and meningeal layers of dura mater in the brain.^[1] They receive blood from internal and external veins of the brain, receive cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from the subarachnoid space via arachnoid granulations, and mainly empty into the internal jugular vein.

Venous sinuses

Name	Drains to
Anterior
Sphenoparietal sinuses	Cavernous sinuses
Cavernous sinuses	Superior and inferior petrosal sinuses
Midline
Superior sagittal sinus	Typically becomes right transverse sinus or confluence of sinuses
Inferior sagittal sinus	Straight sinus
Straight sinus	Typically becomes left transverse sinus or confluence of sinuses
Posterior
Occipital sinus	Confluence of sinuses
Confluence of sinuses	Right and Left transverse sinuses
Lateral
Superior petrosal sinus	Transverse sinuses
Transverse sinuses	Sigmoid sinus
Inferior petrosal sinus	Internal jugular vein
Sigmoid sinuses	Internal jugular vein

Structure

The walls of the dural venous sinuses are composed of dura mater lined with endothelium, a specialized layer of flattened cells found in blood vessels. They differ from other blood vessels in that they lack a full set of vessel layers (e.g. tunica media) characteristic of arteries and veins. It also lacks valves as seen in veins.

Clinical relevance

The sinuses can be injured by trauma in which damage to the dura mater, may result in blood clot formation (thrombosis) within the dural sinuses. Other common causes of dural sinus thrombosis include tracking of infection through the ophthalmic vein in orbital cellulitis. While rare, dural sinus thrombosis may lead to hemorrhagic infarction or cerebral oedema with serious consequences including epilepsy, neurological deficits, or death.^[2]

Additional images

Dura mater and its processes exposed by removing part of the right half of the skull, and the brain.
The sinuses at the base of the skull.

References

↑ Kiernan, John A. (2005). Barr's The Human Nervous System: An Anatomical Viewpoint. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. pp. 428–230. ISBN 0-7817-5154-3.
↑ de Bruijn SF, Stam J (1999). "Randomized, placebo-controlled trial of anticoagulant treatment with low-molecular-weight heparin for cerebral sinus thrombosis". Stroke. 30 (3): 484–8. doi:10.1161/01.str.30.3.484. PMID 10066840.

External links

Veins of the head and neck

External jugular

Retromandibular	maxillary pterygoid plexus superficial temporal anterior auricular

Direct	posterior auricular transverse cervical suprascapular anterior jugular jugular venous arch

Internal jugular

Diploic/brain

Cerebral

Superficial:	superior superficial middle inferior inferior anastomotic (Labbé) superior anastomotic (Trolard)

Deep:	great internal basal deep middle superior thalamostriate

Cerebellar

Sinuses

To COS	superior sagittal straight inferior sagittal occipital

To CS	sphenoparietal intercavernous superior ophthalmic ethmoidal central retinal nasofrontal vorticose veins inferior ophthalmic

To IJV	sigmoid: transverse petrosquamous superior petrosal inferior petrosal basilar plexus internal auditory veins condylar

Facial/common facial

Direct

Brachiocephalic

Vertebral	occipital occipital emissary suboccipital venous plexus deep cervical

Direct	inferior thyroid inferior laryngeal thymic

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