Trigeminal cave

Trigeminal cave

The trigeminal ganglion and its branches represented here as 1st division, 2nd division, and 3rd division. The Trigeminal Cave houses this ganglion.
Details
Latin cavum Meckeli, cavum trigeminale
Identifiers
Gray's p.886
Dorlands
/Elsevier
c_16/12221187
TA A14.1.01.108
Anatomical terminology

The trigeminal cave (also known as Meckel's cave or cavum trigeminale) is an arachnoidal pouch containing cerebrospinal fluid.

Structure

The trigeminal cave is formed by two layers of dura mater which are part of an evagination of the tentorium cerebelli near the apex of the petrous part of the temporal bone. It envelops the trigeminal ganglion. It is bounded by the dura overlying four structures:

  1. The cerebellar tentorium superolaterally
  2. The lateral wall of the cavernous sinus superomedially
  3. The clivus medially
  4. The posterior petrous face inferolaterally

History

Etymology

It is named for Johann Friedrich Meckel, the Elder.[1][2]

References

This article incorporates text in the public domain from the 20th edition of Gray's Anatomy (1918)

  1. synd/2133 at Who Named It?
  2. J. F. Meckel. Tractatus anatomico physiologicus de quinto pare nervorum cerebri. Göttingen 1748.