En Bloc Specimens of the Middle Skull Base prepared from Cadavers for Microsurgical Training

It is not easy to obtain cadaveric heads in Japan. Therefore skull base bone blocks, each consisting of the planum sphenoidale, superior orbital fissures, sella, cavernous sinuses, medial two-thirds of the petrous bones including the arcuate eminence, upper clivus, and related structures, were examined using an operative microscope. The specimens were obtained from 6 autopsy cases without historical or autopsy evidence of skull base lesions. These specimens were useful in clarifying the anatomical relationships between bony structures, vessels, cranial nerves, and related structures in the cavernous sinus and petrous bone to simulate the surgical approaches to lesions occurring in the skull.