Dural venous sinuses
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Dural venous sinuses | |
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| Dural veins | |
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| Sagittal section of the skull, showing the sinuses of the dura. | |
| Gray's | subject #171 654 |
| MeSH | Cranial+Sinuses |
The dural venous sinuses (also called dural sinuses or cerebral sinuses) are venous channels found between layers of dura mater in the brain. They receive blood from internal and external veins of the brain and ultimately empty into the internal jugular vein. Damage to the walls of the dural sinuses may result in dural sinus thrombosis.
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[edit] Venous sinuses
- Superior sagittal sinus
- Inferior sagittal sinus
- Straight sinus
- Occipital sinus
- Transverse sinuses
- Sigmoid sinuses
- Superior petrosal sinus
- Inferior petrosal sinus
- Confluence of sinuses
[edit] 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.
[edit] Clinical relevance
Damage to the dura mater, which may be caused by skull fracture, may result blood clot formation (thrombosis) within the dural sinuses. While rare, dural sinus thrombosis may lead to hemorrhagic infarction with serious consequences including epilepsy, neurological deficits, or death.
[edit] References
- Kiernan, John A. (2005). Barr's The Human Nervous System: An Anatomical Viewpoint. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 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. PMID 10066840.
