Description

This video covers the Cerebral Veins, including their classification, course, and clinical significance.

Key Characteristics of Cerebral Veins:

• No valves.
• Lie in the subarachnoid space.
• Drain into the venous sinuses.
• Divided into:
  • Deep Cerebral Veins: Drain the diencephalon and deep parts of the hemispheres.
  • Superficial Cerebral Veins: Drain the cerebral cortex.

Deep Cerebral Veins:

Drain blood from the diencephalon and deep structures of the hemispheres into the Great Cerebral Vein (Vena Magna Cerebri).

• Great Cerebral Vein (Vena Magna Cerebri): Main deep venous drainage of the brain.
• Basal Vein (Vena Basalis): Runs underneath the hypothalamus, formed by small anterior cerebral veins.
• Internal Cerebral Vein (Vena Interna Cerebri): Drains deep structures of the brain.
• Superior Thalamostriate Vein (Vena Thalamostriata Superior): Drains the thalamus and striatum.
• Superior Choroid Vein: Drains the choroid plexus.
• Anterior Vein of Septum Pellucidum: Drains the septum pellucidum.

Superficial Cerebral Veins:

Collect blood from the cerebral cortex and drain into the venous sinuses.

• Superficial Middle Cerebral Vein (Vena Cerebri Media Superficialis): Drains the frontal, temporal, and parietal lobes.
  • Superior Anastomotic Vein of Trolard (Vena Anastomotica Superior): Connects the superficial middle cerebral vein with the superior sagittal sinus.
  • Inferior Anastomotic Vein of Labbé (Vena Anastomotica Inferior): Connects the superficial middle cerebral vein with the transverse sinus.
• Superior Cerebral Veins (Venae Cerebri Superiores): Drain into the superior sagittal sinus.
• Inferior Cerebral Veins (Venae Cerebri Inferiores): Drain into the transverse and cavernous sinuses.
• Superior and Inferior Cerebellar Veins (Venae Superiores et Inferiores Cerebelli): Drain the cerebellum.

Diploic Veins:

Located within the diploë (spongy bone of the skull), these veins drain blood into the dural venous sinuses.

Emissary Veins:

These veins connect the dural venous sinuses with the extracranial veins, forming Cranio-Cerebral Anastomoses.

• Parietal Emissary Vein (Vena Emissaria Parietalis)
• Mastoid Emissary Vein (Vena Emissaria Mastoidea)
• Occipital Emissary Vein (Vena Emissaria Occipitalis)
• Condylar Emissary Vein (Vena Emissaria Condylaris)

Clinical Relevance:

• Cavernous Sinus Thrombosis: Infection from the face (danger triangle) can spread to the cavernous sinus via emissary veins.
• Subdural Hematoma: Rupture of superficial cerebral veins leads to bleeding into the subdural space.
• Stroke: Blockage of deep cerebral veins can result in venous infarction.

Sources Used:

• Memorix Anatomy (2nd Edition) – Hudák Radovan, Kachlík David, Volný Ondřej.
• Complete Anatomy by 3D4Medical.
• Biorender.
• University Notes and Lectures.

Transcript

Introduction
0:03
In the last video, we covered the anatomy of the dural sinuses;
0:06
Now let’s go ahead and cover the rest of the veins you’ll find supplying the structures
0:10
of the brain.
0:11
So, In this video, we’re first going to talk about the cerebral veins
0:15
Which include the deep cerebral veins and the superficial cerebral veins.
0:20
Then we’ll talk briefly about the diploic veins and then the emissary’s veins.
0:25
And again, in the previous video, we talked about the dural sinuses; so if that topic
0:29
is unfamiliar to you I’ll put a link to a playlist that covers
0:33
the venous drainage of different parts of our bodies.
Veins of the Systemic Circulation
0:36
Alright.
0:37
So, the easiest way to understand the veins of the systemic circulation is to divide them
0:42
into their own systems.
0:44
So the veins of the heart form their own system We have the Veins of the Inferior Vena Cava,
0:49
which is responsible for supplying the lower half of the body
0:53
Veins of the superior vena cava for the upper half of the body
0:57
And the portal system, which drains nutrients from the intestines
1:01
and waste products from the spleen and dumps them into the liver to be processed,
1:05
which then flow into the inferior vena cava again.
1:08
So these are the 4 main systems of veins we have in our bodies.
1:13
And so, the cerebral veins are a part of the superior vena cava because they drain into
1:18
it eventually.
Dural Sinuses Recap
1:19
So here are the dural veins we went through last time.
1:22
All the main dural sinuses that exist in our brain.
1:25
Now let’s expand on that and make a cross-section right across the cranium
1:30
As you see here.
1:31
Remove the upper half.
1:33
And look at the skull from this perspective.
1:35
We’ll see this.
1:36
So from this perspective; we can see the Straight Sinus
1:39
The Transverse Sinus The sigmoid Sinus,
1:42
The inferior petrosal Sinus and the Superior petrosal Sinus
1:47
Cavernous Sinus, and between them the Anterior and the posterior intercavernous
1:52
sinuses Then there’s the basilar plexus and the sphenoparietal
1:56
Sinus.
1:57
And then here we see the tentorium cerebelli; which lies between the Cerebellum and the
2:00
Cerebrum Alright;
Cerebral Veins
2:03
So let’s work from there, and start breaking down the cerebral vein.
2:07
The first thing that we need to know is that the cerebral veins have no valves.
2:11
So unlike the veins of the systemic circulation; which are equipped with valves to prevent
2:16
backflow of blood, the cerebral veins have no valves.
2:20
Just like the dural sinuses.
2:22
Another thing is that the cerebral veins lie in the subarachnoid space.
2:27
So here we see a coronal section of the brain.
2:30
Here’s the dural Sinus, or the superior sagittal Sinus which lies in the two spaces of dura
2:36
mater.
2:37
And here’s the subarachnoid space, which contain cerebral veins as you see here,
2:43
draining into the dural sinuses.
2:46
And lastly; it’s classified into; The Deep cerebral veins, and the Superficial
2:51
cerebral veins The deep cerebral veins drain blood from the
2:55
Deincephalon and the deep parts of the hemispheres; into the great cerebral vein, I’ll show you
3:00
a scheme in a few seconds The superficial cerebral veins collect blood
3:05
from the cerebral cortex and drain blood into the venous sinuses.
Deep Cerebral Veins
3:09
Awesome.
3:10
Let’s work from there, starting with the deep cerebral veins.
3:13
First on our list is the Great Cerebral Vein.
3:16
It’s about 1 cm long.
3:19
It’s unpaired.
3:20
And it opens into the straight Sinus.
3:22
Alright.
3:23
Then let’s add the hypothalamus because this vein has tributary veins called Basal Veins
3:28
which run under the hypothalamus and drain the hypothalamus and the basal nuclei.
3:33
The Basal vein is formed at the anterior perforating substance at the region of the midbrain
3:39
and it’s formed by the union of some small anterior cerebral veins that go together with
3:44
the anterior cerebral artery and supply the medial surface of the frontal lobe.
3:51
It has othe tributaries aswell like the deep middle cerebral vein and the inferior striatal
3:58
veins, but the most important one here in caps is the
4:02
Anterior cerebral vein.
4:03
Awesome.
4:04
Next let’s build on this model and add the Thalami
4:08
The lateral ventricles, as well as the 3rd ventricle.
4:11
The next vein is the internal cerebral vein.
4:15
This one is located above the roof of the third ventricle,
4:18
And it collects blood from the basal ganglia, internal capsule, choroid plexus, and all
4:23
of the structures in this region.
4:25
And it does that mainly through three veins that drain into it.
4:31
Lateral to the lateral ventricle, we got caudate nucleus.
4:35
The first vein that drain into the internal cerebrla vein is the Superior Thalamostriatal
4:41
vein.
4:42
This vein curves anteriorly like this, and drains blood from
4:46
the thalamus, striatum, and internal capsule.
4:50
Next we have a vein that drains the choroid plexus of the lateral ventricles, called the
4:55
superior choroidal vein.
4:57
Then we have the anterior vein of septum pellucidum, which drain blood from
5:01
the septum pellucidum and head of the caudate nucleus.
5:05
Sweet.
5:06
That’s all the deep cerebral veins that I wanted to cover.
5:10
Let’s quickly recap those now before we talk about the superficial ones.
5:14
So here we see the superior sagittal sinus and the inferior sagittal Sinus.
5:19
Between them is the straight Sinus, which forms the confluence of sinuses
5:23
Then we got the occipital Sinus Transverse Sinus
5:27
Sigmoid Sinus, and the internal Jugular Vein.
5:31
We got the superior and the inferior petrosal sinuses which drain from the cavernous sinus.
5:36
We got the sphenoparietal sinus.
5:38
The intercavernous sinuses.
5:40
Then we have the basilar plexus, which drains several surrounding structures around it.
5:45
Here we have the hypothalamus, the lateral and the 3rd ventricles.
5:50
Right and the left Thalamus The caudate nuclei and the choroid plexus.
5:54
Here we have the great cerebral vein, which continues as the basal vein, and receives
6:00
blood from the anterior cerebral vein.
6:03
We have the Internal Cerebral vein, which receives blood from the
6:07
Superior thalamostriate vein, superior choroid vein and the anterior vein of septum pellucidum.
6:14
Awesome.
6:15
So that’s all the main veins that drain the inner gray matter and white mater of the
Superficial Cerebral Veins
6:20
cerebral hemispheres.
6:21
Let’s now briefly talk about the superficial cerebral veins.
6:25
So again here we have the superior sagittal sinus
6:29
Occipital Sinus Transverse Sinus
6:31
Sigmoid and the Internl Jugular.
6:34
We have the Superior and the Inferior Petrosal Sinuses, and the cavernous sinus.
6:38
Cool.
6:39
So again the superficial cerebral veins drain blood from the cerebral cortex into these
6:46
sinuses we see here.
6:47
And there are 4 main ones that’s important to know here.
6:51
First one is the Superficial Middle Cerebral Vein.
6:54
It’s a vein that’s visible superficially when you look at the brain grossly.
6:59
begins close to the supramarginal gyrus, runs along the lateral cerebral sulcus as you see
7:06
here and drains into the sphenoparietal or cavernous
7:11
sinus in the front here.
7:13
And it mainly drains the lobes around it.
7:16
So the frontal lobe, parietal lobe and the temporal lobe.
7:19
Now there’re two important anestemoting branches here called the Superior anastomotic
7:25
vein of Trolard, which is a connection between the superficial middle cerebral vein
7:29
and superior cerebral veins of the superior sagittal sinus
7:34
And the Inferior anastomotic vein of Labbé, which is a connection between
7:41
the superficial middle cerebral vein and inferior cerebral veins of the transverse sinus
7:48
Then we have a lot of veins that collect blood from the superolateral surface of the cortex,
7:54
And drain them into mainly the superior sagittal sinus
7:57
Similarly, we have the inferior cerebral veins, which drain the inferior part of the cerebral
8:04
cortex, and empty the blood into the transverse, superior petrosal and the inferior petrosal
8:10
sinuses.
8:11
Next we have the superior and the inferior cerebellar veins, are also called infratentorial
8:17
veins Since they’re below the tentorium cerebelli.
8:21
So here we have the cerebellum, And these are the superior and the inferior
8:27
cerebellar veins.
8:28
So they drain blood from the cerebellum and flow into their closest sinus, which are the
8:33
superior and inferior petrosal sinuses, sigmoid sinus and the transverse sinus.
8:39
So that was all I had for the cerebral veins.
8:43
Awesome Let’s now talk briefly about the Diploic
Diploic Veins
8:46
Veins.
8:47
Diploic Veins like the the diploe, and drains them.
8:51
So remember from bone histology that diploe is the spongious bony tissue between the external
8:59
and the internal layers of the skull.
9:01
So here’s the skull Take one piece out, and it’ll look like
9:05
this.
9:06
The inner and outer surface are covered by Periosteum.
9:10
Just like the rest of the bones in our body.
9:12
The outer and inner part are compact bone And in here, you’ll find the spongy bone.
9:18
Which is also called Diploe.
9:20
Take a look at this model here.
9:22
Where do you think the Diploic Veins are?
9:24
They’re here!
9:25
I know you got this one right!
9:27
They’re some very small veins located inside the spongy part of the skull.
9:33
And they mainly drain the blood into our venous sinuses on the inside.
9:37
They can even communicate with the external veins of the skull also sometimes.
9:42
So that’s the Diploic Veins.
Emissary Veins
9:44
Next we have the Emissary veins!
9:46
The emissary veins are veins that connect the dural sinuses and the extracranial veins!
9:52
So in other words, they form cranio-cerebral anestemoses.
9:56
Here’s an extracranial vein.
9:59
Here’s the dural sinus.
10:01
Here are the foramina of the skull And inside these foramina, you’ll find the
10:06
emissary veins.
10:07
And don’t forget that we also have our diploic veins here.
10:10
Alright.
10:11
There are 4 main emissary veins.
10:14
So if we add the skull here.
10:16
Remember we had a superficial temporal vein?
10:20
The first emissary vein is called parietal emissary veins, whcih runs through the parietal
10:25
foramen connecting the superior sagittal sinus with the superficial temporal vein.
10:31
Then we have the occipital vein.
10:33
And the next emissary vein is called Mastoid Emissary vein, which runs through
10:38
the mastoid foramen connecting the sigmoid sinus with the occipital vein.
10:43
Then we have the Occipital Emissary Vein, which runs through the occipital foramen,
10:48
connecting the transverse sinus and the confluence of sinuses with the occipital vein.
10:53
Then we got the external vertebral venous plexus, which connects with the sigmoid sinus
11:00
through the condylar emissary veins.
11:02
So that was everything I had for the cerebral veins, diploic veins and the emissary veins.
11:07
If you found this video helpful Please put a like, share, comment.
11:10
Whatever you find convenient to you.
11:12
See you next time