Dural venous sinuses

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Vein: Dural venous sinuses

Dural veins

Sagittal section of the skull, showing the sinuses of the dura.
Latin	s. durae matris
Gray's	subject #171 654
MeSH	Cranial+Sinuses
Dorlands / Elsevier	s_12/12738708

The dural venous sinuses (also called dural sinuses, cerebral sinuses, or cranial sinuses) are venous channels found between 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, and ultimately empty into the internal jugular vein.

1 Venous sinuses
2 Structure
3 Clinical relevance
4 Additional images
5 References

[edit] Venous sinuses

Name	Drains to
Inferior sagittal sinus	Straight sinus
Superior sagittal sinus	Confluence of sinuses
Straight sinus	Confluence of sinuses
Occipital sinus	Confluence of sinuses
Confluence of sinuses	Transverse sinuses
Cavernous sinuses	Superior and inferior petrosal sinuses
Transverse sinuses	Sigmoid sinus
Superior petrosal sinus	Sigmoid sinus
Inferior petrosal sinus	Internal jugular vein
Sigmoid sinuses	Internal jugular vein

[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

The sinuses can be injured by trauma.^[2] 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.^[3]

[edit] 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.

[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.
^ Anatomy at MUN head/cbv
^ 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.

v • d • e

Veins (emissary, jugular and others) and sinuses of head and neck (drainage patterns can vary)

to external jugular

retromandibular: maxillary • superficial temporal (anterior auricular)

posterior auricular

transverse cervical - suprascapular - anterior jugular (jugular venous arch)

to internal jugular

Diploic/brain	cerebral: superior • middle • inferior • great • internal (basal, superior thalamostriate) cerebellar: superior • inferior To COS: superior sagittal • straight (inferior sagittal) • occipital To CS: sphenoparietal • intercavernous superior ophthalmic (ethmoidal, central retinal, nasofrontal) • inferior ophthalmic • vorticose veins To IJV: sigmoid: transverse (petrosquamous) • superior petrosal inferior petrosal (basilar plexus, internal auditory veins) - condylar

Other	common facial • facial (frontal, supraorbital, angular, superior labial, inferior labial, deep facial) • pterygoid plexus lingual (dorsal lingual, deep lingual, sublingual) • pharyngeal • thyroid (superior/superior laryngeal, middle)