THE ANATOMY AND CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TERMINAL SEGMENT OF THE SUPERFICIAL MIDDLE CEREBRAL VEIN——WITH TWO VARIANT DURAL VENOUS SINUSES / 解剖学报

ABSTRACT

The superficial middle cerebral veins (SMCV) of 50 human heads were dissectedunder the operating microscope (10?).There were 122 terminal braches of the SMCV in the specimens and the typesof their drainage can be divided into fourtype 1 (41.00%)—drains into the caver-nous sinus;type 2 (24.60%)—drains into the variant venous sinus in the lateralwall of the cavernous sinus;type 3(28.70%)—drains into the variant venous sinus inthe dura of the middle cranial fossa;type 4(5.70%)—drains into other dural venoussinuses.Type 1 may be considered as normal and the others as variant.The two variant dural venous sinuses reported are respectively located in thelateral wall of the cavernous sinus,named“the lateral wall sinus of the cavernoussinus”,and in the dura of the middle cranial fossa,named the“variant sinus ofthe middle cranial fossa”.The former occurred 27% in the specimens and the later25%.We have discussed about the drainage of the SMCV and two variant dural ven-ous sinuses on the embryonic basis and the clinical practice.