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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Asian J Neurosurg 2018; 13(01): 1-8
DOI: 10.4103/ajns.AJNS_26_16
Review Article

Review of surgical anatomy of the tumors involving cavernous sinus

Silky Chotai
Department of Neurosurgery, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou
,
Yi Liu
Department of Neurosurgery, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou
,
Songtao Qi
Department of Neurosurgery, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou
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The lesions involving cavernous sinus (CS) and lateral sellar region includes tumors, vascular lesions, infection, inflammation, and trauma. Tumors associated with CS cause significant distortion of the microanatomy posing an additional surgical challenge to the neurosurgeons. The surgical approach and microsurgical anatomy with respect to the origin and growth of the tumor within the CS region have not been comprehensively described in recent years. We conducted a review of literature concerning CS and associated tumors, complied through MEDLINE/OVID and using cross-references of articles on PubMed with the keywords cavernous sinus, CS tumors, pituitary adenoma, meningioma, schwannoma, chordoma, CS hemangiomas, extradural, interdural, intradural, skull base, gamma knife radiosurgery, endoscopic endonasal approach. Based on the tumor origin and growth pattern, the tumors associated with CS can be classified into three categories: Type-I: tumor originating from CS, Type-II: originating from lateral wall of CS, and Type-III: extraneous origin and occupying CS. The review focuses on approach to a tumor within each type of tumor in the CS region. The emphasis is that the tumor growth pattern and significant distortion of the CS anatomy caused by the tumor growth should be considered while planning the optimal surgical approach for tumors in this region to ensure complete tumor resection with minimal neurovascular morbidity.

Key-words:

Anatomy - cavernous sinus - meningioma - tumors


Publication History

Article published online:
14 September 2022

© 2018. Asian Congress of Neurological Surgeons. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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