Meninges, Venous Drainage and CSF Flashcards
Describe the dura mater
- Thick, tough material
- Includes branches of middle meningeal artery
- Bridges the fissures and sulci
List the cisterns
- Superior
- Interpeduncular
- Cisterna pontis
- Cisterna magna
Which cistern can you sample CSF from
Cisterna magna
Where does the circle of willis lie
Subarachnoid space
What is a frequent site of subarachnoid haemorrhage
Where the posterior communicating artery arises from the ICA
What are the denticulate ligaments
Part of the pia
What level do you sample CSF at
L4/5
Describe the veins of the brain
- Thin walled, with no valves
- Emerge from brain and lie in spinal cord
- Drain into cranial venous sinuses
- Grouped in external and internal cerebral veins
What is the tentorium cerebelli
Differentiates between cerebellum and cerebrum
Describe the tentorial notch
If ICP increases, brain can be forced through the gap in a trans-tectorial herniation
What are the dural folds
- Falx cerbri
- Tentorium cerebelli
What can cause a subdural haemorrhage
Cerebral atrophy (e.g. in alcoholics, or the elderly) can cause veins to become fragile and can break easily
What is CSF
Clear, colourless fluid which fills the ventricles of the brain and surrounds the brain and spinal cord
How much CSF is produced
150ml produced at 0.5ml/min and turns over 4 times a day
Where is CSF produced
Choroid plexus
What cells are responsible for forming CSF
- Core of vascular tissue in pia is covered by an epithelium which secretes CSF
- Epithelium is differentiated from ependyma- so is classified as glial
Where does CSF flow out of the ventricle system
-Flows in subarachnoid space via apertures in fourth ventricle through superior sagittal sinus
What can cause hydrocephalus
- Non-communicative (blocked transport)
- Communicative (blocked absorption of CSF)
