Venous sinuses of the dura mater

The volumetric course of these venous canals is difficult to project onto any one plane. Let's approach the sines from several projections. Let's start at the base of the skull from the cavernous sinuses.

The main tributaries of the cavernous sinus:
orbital veins,
wedge-parietal sinus,
superficial middle veins of the brain.
Outflow of venous blood from the cavernous sinus:
superior petrosal sinus,
inferior petrosal sinus,
pterygoid plexus.

Cavernous sinus, or cavernous sinus, or cavernous sinus, or sinus cavernosus
The sinus is paired and located at the base of the skull on the sides of the sella turcica. The sinus contains many connective tissue septa, dividing the sinus cavity into a number of separate interconnected cavities, like the corpus cavernosum.

The main tributaries of the cavernous sinus.
Rivers along which venous blood fills the cavernous sinus lake.

Superior and inferior orbital veins
There are two orbital veins: superior and inferior. Superior ocular vein, v. ophthalmica superior leaves the orbit through the superior orbital fissure into the cranial cavity, where it flows into the cavernous sinus. The lower ophthalmic vein anastomoses with the superior ophthalmic vein and is divided into two branches. The superior branch passes through the superior orbital fissure into the cranial cavity and flows into the cavernous sinus.

The wedge-parietal sinus, or sinus sphenoparietalis, or Breshe's sinus.
The sinus descends along the cranial vault along the coronal suture, passes under the wedge-parietal suture. Further, the sinus passes from the cranial vault to the free edge of the small wings of the sphenoid bone, follows along them in the medial direction until it flows into the cavernous sinus.

Superficial middle veins of the brain.
The middle (Sylvian) veins flow into the cavernous and sphenoparietal sinuses. The middle veins provide outflow from the anterior-superior temporal lobes and the posterior sections of the inferior frontal gyri.

Pterygoid plexus
The venous pterygoid plexus is located between the pterygoid muscles.
The cavernous sinus is connected by a series of anastomoses with the venous pterygoid plexus. The outflow of venous blood from the cranial cavity into the pterygoid plexus occurs through the graduates' anastomoses passing through the lacerated, oval and Vesalievo (if any) openings of the skull base.

The middle meningeal veins are such anastomoses that carry venous blood from the cranial cavity to the outside. So vv. meningeae mediae accompany the artery of the same name, connect along the way with the sphenoid-parietal sinus and, leaving the cranial cavity through the spinous opening, flow into the pterygoid (venous) plexus.

In addition to connections with the cranial cavity, blood flows into the pterygoid plexus from the nasal cavity through the sphenoid-palatine vein, from the temporal fossa through the deep temporal veins, from the masticatory muscles through the masticatory veins.

Intercavernous sinus
The right and left cavernous sinuses are connected by two transverse anastomoses: anterior and posterior intercavernous, or intercavernous sinuses, or sinus intercavernosi.

The outflow of blood from the cavernous sinuses occurs in the dorsal direction along the superior and inferior petrosal sinuses.

The superior petrosal sinuses originate in the posterior part of the cavernous sinus, pass along the upper edge of the temporal bone pyramid and flow into the sigmoid sinus.
In the posterior cranial fossa, the foramen magnum is surrounded by a venous ring, similar to the venous rings of the spinal canal. This unpaired plexus, called the main one, is connected in front with the cavernous sinuses, and on the sides with the lower stony sinuses. In addition to the described connections, the main plexus also communicates with the venous plexuses of the spinal canal and through the occipital sinus with the transverse sinus.

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