• DOI:10.3171/2009.11.JNS091592
• Corpus ID: 23582502

Parasellar compartment.

@article{Dolenc2010ParasellarC,
  title={Parasellar compartment.},
  author={Vinko V. Dolenc},
  journal={Journal of neurosurgery},
  year={2010},
  volume={113 5},
  pages={
          1043; discussion 1043-4
        }
}

• V. Dolenc
• Published 1 November 2010
• Medicine
• Journal of neurosurgery

The extradural neural axis compartment in the parasellar compartment has been repeatedly studied during the past 70 years. The anatomy of the cavernous sinus or parasellar compartment—as it was recently named by Parkinson—has now been termed the “perisellar area,” by François et al.,5 which is a misnomer. To include electron microscopy in the study of these compartments is of course a good idea; however, for practical surgical means it contributes no useful practical data. It has been known for a long time that the orbit and the cavernous sinus (parasellar compartment) represent a single unit as well as a suite in a hotel. It is nothing new that in the parasellar compartment fatty cells are present, and in some cases this compartment can be filled partially or completely with the fatty tissue. The concept of Parkinson that the parasellar compartment is just one segment of the extradural neural axis compartment has been well known for a long time (personal communication, 1986).6,7 The authors studied the anatomy of the meningeal structures of the lateral sellar compartment, which is actually the cavernous sinus or parasellar compartment. What it is called is irrelevant; however, what is important is that we understand each other on what we are talking about. The same holds for the petroclival venous confluence as it holds for the orbit and the trigeminal cave, which is usually called the Meckel cave, where the gasserian ganglion is located. Regarding the petroclival venous confluence, the appearance of its architecture has also been made clear. The same holds true for the orbit. In reality, the relationship between the layers of the periosteum and the dura is very different in the spinal canal, clival region, Meckel cave, parasellar compartment or the sella, and the orbit. A number of dural layers are of course different at the apex of the pyramid where such different structures as dural coverings of the apex of the pyramid and the tentorium come together. It is difficult to argue with the fact that the petroclival dural structures are different from the dural composition of the lateral middle cranial fossa. The descriptions of the anatomical relationships of the intracavernous structures as presented in this study are far from surpassing any of those that have already been published.1–4 The electron microscopy images of the walls of different dural-extradural compartments (clival, petroclival, and others) do show an interesting composition of different layers of coverings. Despite the long-lasting hot topic in the treatment of pathological entities in the parasellar compartment, unsolved problems remain. For this reason, the microscopy studies of the biological composition and properties of the coverings of this compartment are quite welcome. Proper understanding of the biophysical properties of the membranes will enable us to better understand why and when a tumorous pathology may transgress the normal anatomical frontiers. Personally, I do not see the advancement on this subject in presenting larger and larger tumors treated in the region, but rather in the studies of the important details concerning the anatomical compositions and relationships between the different structures of the compartment.