Cavernous Sinus Dural Walls

The external structure of each cavernous sinus is made of four dural walls. The aim of this study was to describe the anatomy of the dural walls of the cavernous sinus. We studied 10 adult cadaveric heads, fixed with formalin and injected with coloured silicon. The main findings were: 1) the lateral wall of the cavernous sinus has two layers: the external, which is thick and pearly grey, and the internal, which is semi-transparent and contains the cranial nerves; 2) the medial wall of the cavernous sinus has two areas: sellar and sphenoidal, both made up of one dural layer only; 3) the superior wall of the cavernous sinus is formed by three triangles: oculomotor, clinoid and carotid. The oculomotor nerve (III CN) may be found in a cisternal space of the oculomotor triangle; and 4) the posterior wall of the cavernous sinus is made up of two dural layers: meningeal dura and periostic dura, and this wall is related with the vertical segment of the abducens nerve (VI CN).