Original article                                                                            

UDC: 616.715:616.284.8-089.8

doi:10.5633/amm.2014.0405

 

 

 

Enlarged Mastoid Foramen

 

Dragoslava Đerić^1,2, Bojana Bukurov², Srbislav Blažić², Ljiljana Čvorović^1,2

 

 

University of Belgrade, School of Medicine, Serbia¹

Clinic for Otorhinolaryngology and Maxillofacial Surgery, Belgrade, Clinical Center of Serbia²

 

A superficial venous system of posterior neck region is very important as a possible source of complications during surgery, such as bleeding or air embolism. Despite the advances in anatomy and neurosurgery, detailed descriptions of mastoid foramen (MF) and mastoid emissary veins (MEV) are still lacking in literature.

Anatomical features of the mastoid region were examined on 150 samples of the temporal bones that were selected from our large cohort. In one temporal bone we found a very large mastoid foramen with wide communication to the sigmoid sinus. We reviewed the literature and discussed the importance of variation of vascularisation in the mastoid region. Acta Medica Medianae 2014;53(4):27-29.

                                                                            

Key words: mastoid foramen, variations, sigmoid sinus, tinnitus, surgical importance