hello all this is dr. Alsup and while we have a great focus in the cranial cavity and brain
session on the dural venous sinuses there are a few veins that we want to discuss and a few
we're going to more talk about conceptually and a few we want to be able to actually identify
so let's get started so we'll start with the ones that I think we need to think about a bit
more conceptually they are difficult to see and dissections we'll talk a little bit about where
they could be located and these are the emissary veins these are connections between the external
portions of the cranium so mostly associated with the scalp but in some other areas as well
so that connection between that external part of the cranium to the dural venous sinuses the
flow of blood is typically away from the brain but not always so you're going to have Emissary
veins in many different regions sometimes they will be missing in these regions sometimes it
will be more than it's typical so there's a lot of variation here now there is a little bit of
one that I think you can see right about here and I can see a little vein kind of popping out from
the meningeal region so it's popping out from the inside of the cranial region likely where
it was heading towards through the bone towards the scalp region it is not going to be anything
in this region these are going to be part of the lacunae where those arachnoid granulations
are moving into that region so it's like I said it's difficult to be able to see emissary veins
but but we want you to conceptually understand them because they're important clinically you
can have infection that can kind of move through these regions now this particular one would likely
be part of the frontal emissary veins you will also often have parietal emissary veins mastoid
emissary veins which are closely associated or in the near vicinity of the mastoid process as well
as posterior condylar emissary veins sometimes he's referred to as occipital emissary veins
okay now let's talk about the superior cerebral veins typically you have about 8 to 12 superior
cerebral veins which are the superior most of the superficial cerebral veins and as you can see here
these are draining into the superior sagittal sinus which is located right about here within
the falx cerebri these veins are going to drain the superficial superior portions of the cerebrum
and lastly we will discuss the great cerebral vein of Galen this is a single midline vein
which was formed inside the brain by the union or the coalescence of two fairly large internal
cerebral veins so I have two different views here we're looking at a superior view with the calvaria
removed here this is the tentorium cerebelli right here and right here and the falx cerebri has
been removed but you can see a little bit of it right here and you can see right in this region
that is going to be the great cerebral vein you can see it a little bit clearer here here's
that falx cerebelli that has not been removed nice very obvious sickle-shaped dural partition
this is the tentorium cerebelli and this little portion right here is the great cerebral vein
the right cerebral vein is going to meet up with the inferior sagittal sinus venous sinus which is
going to be located here so these two the great cerebral vein will meet the inferior sagittal
sinus to form the straight sinus and that straight sinus is going to be located at the meeting point
of the falx cerebri and the tentorium cerebelli alright so that is going to be our quick review of
the veins that are associated with this session like I said will spend considerable more time
and have a separate video where we discuss the dural venous sinuses as you review this and if
you have any questions please always feel free to reach out to me thank you very much for your time