Clinical analysis of cavernous sinus anatomy, pathologies, diagnostics, surgical management and complications – Comprehensive review

For decades, the cavernous sinus (CS) has been the subject of debates and scientific studies aimed at elucidating its anatomical variability, and at choosing the best method for accessing it so that optimal diagnoses and related surgical treatments can be decided. The present review considers a series of issues related to the CS. The anatomy of the CS and its features is explored first, and the most important structures, spaces and morphological variations are considered. This is followed by CS pathology and selected diagnostic methods that have proved useful in therapy, and then the management of these pathologies is discussed. Examples of therapeutic steps that have proved helpful in specific cases are taken from the literature. Finally, the various surgical accesses and complications that can be encountered during invasive interventions in the CS area are discussed. The aim of this study is to summarize up-to-date anatomical and clinical knowledge about the CS, citing the most informative scientific papers and aggregating their results. Morphological variations of the CS are common but have not been well described in the literature.