Abstract
Most cavernous sinuses (>90 %) have some degree of fat on autopsy, but on occasion fat can replace most of the cavernous sinus on computed tomography (CT) and may simulate air or gas. Without proper windowing the hypodensity on CT can lead to undue concern for air emboli or gas from a fracture involving the skull base (such as gas from the sphenoid sinus or petrous apices), for an arachnoid cyst, or it may even be windowed appropriately but considered a congenital anomaly such as a lipoma or dermoid cyst. This may occur bilaterally or unilaterally.
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Suggested Reading
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McKinney, A.M. (2017). Cavernous Sinus Fat and Pseudomasses. In: Atlas of Normal Imaging Variations of the Brain, Skull, and Craniocervical Vasculature . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39790-0_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39790-0_7
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