BRANCHES OF THE INTRACAVERNOUS INTERNAL CAROTID-ARTERY AND THE BLOOD-SUPPLY OF THE INTRACAVERNOUS CRANIAL NERVES

With the increasing frequency of surgical operations to the cavernous sinus greater knowledge of the microanatomy of the cavernous sinus has become necessary. The most frequently seen complications during caver nous sinus surgery involve impairment of cranial nerves. This can occu r due to direct damage or ischemia. For these reasons, it is important to know the arterial supplies to the cranial nerves in the cavernous sinus and the anatomy of these branches as well. 15 formaline fixed ad ult cadavers were used in this study. Before the dissections, the inte rnal carotid artery and vertebral artery were filled with coloured lat ex on both sides. In this report, the intracavernous branches of inter nal carotid artery (I.I.C.A.) were identified based on the principles of Nomina Anatomica (1989) and compared with others. In our study we f ound that the segment of the abducens nerve which lies in Dorello's ch annel was supplied by the meningeal branch; from the point at which it pierces the cerebellar tentorium, the trochlear nerve is supplied by the tentorial cerebellar artery; the posterior cerebellar artery suppl ies the proximal segment of the oculomotor nerve that proceeds to the oculomotor triangle. Except for these, all the cranial nerves that wer e located on the lateral wall of the sinus cavernosus are supplied by the tentorial marginal branch and the branches of the lateral trunk.