A guide to the venous drainage of the anterior Sylvian fissure

The cortex that surrounds the anterior Sylvian fissure controls important c linical functions. Understanding the variations in its venous drainage is c ritical to interventional radiologists and surgeons who attempt to treat va scular malformation and/or tumors of this region. In addition, these veins are surgical landmarks in surgery for suprasellar, temporal, and deep front oparietal lobe lesions, and aneurysms of the middle cerebral artery bifurca tion. In this article, the angiographic appearance and cortical territories of the six major variations in the venous drainage of the anterior Sylvian fissure are simplified and presented graphically.