Raiders of the Lost Canal: Review of Underrecognized Skull Base Canals, Fissures, and Foramina

Abstract

The anatomy of the skull base is complex and poses a daunting challenge to many radiologists and trainees. In addition to knowing major skull base passages, there are several underrecognized skull base canals, foramina, and fissures that are critical to avoid misdiagnosis, understand the spread of disease, and guide surgical management. A review of the current literature on these forgotten structures yielded numerous original articles and a few review articles, none of which were comprehensive. This article aimed to fill that void. We provide a comprehensive review of underrecognized skull base anatomic structures and their content and discuss their clinical implications.Learning Objective: Recognize uncommon skull base structures, their content, and their clinical implications