Anatomy study note · Head and neck

Dura mater

The tough outer meninx, described as an outer endosteal layer (periosteum of the skull) and an inner meningeal layer, which separate along certain lines to enclose the venous sinuses.

Key points

• Endosteal + meningeal layers; sinuses between them.
• Septa: falx cerebri, tentorium cerebelli, falx cerebelli, diaphragma sellae.
• Extradural = middle meningeal artery (pterion); subdural = bridging veins.
• Cavernous sinus: ICA + VI inside; III, IV, V1, V2 in the wall.
• CSF → arachnoid villi → superior sagittal sinus.
• Dura: mesoderm round the neural tube.
• Meningocoele / meningomyelocoele.
• Dura / arachnoid / pia (vascular, on the brain).

The full note in the atlas also covers

Features · Blood supply · Nerve supply · Histology · Development · Clinical notes

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Written from

• Snell’s Clinical Anatomy by Regions, 10th ed., ch. 12, PDF pp. 1548–1561
• Inderbir Singh’s Human Embryology, ch. 17, PDF pp. 321, 343–344
• BRS Cell Biology & Histology, 7th ed., ch. 9, PDF pp. 165, 169

More from the head and neck

• Dural venous sinuses
• Epiglottis
• Ethmoid
• External carotid artery
• External ear
• External jugular vein
• External nose
• Eyelids and conjunctiva
• Facial bones of the orbit and nasal cavity
• Facial nerve
• Frontal bone
• Frontal lobe

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