Introduction

Abstract

The relatively restricted and often little known anatomic studies of the veins of the posterior fossa are now unadaptable to the extraordinary development of cerebral angiography in neuroradiology, especially with the use of subtraction, angiotomography, and magnification. If anatomists seem to have attributed a somewhat limited importance to the multiple veins of the posterior fossa, this has not been due to negligence or deliberate disregard on their part. It is rather the expansion of cerebral angiography and the evolution of neuroradiology in general which creates this impression. Medicine is being oriented by cerebral angiography toward structures heretofore invisible and now subjected to scientific analysis. Under this drive, a detailed anatomic study of the arterial and venous cerebral system has been undertaken. This elaboration is warranted by imperious clinical and therapeutic reasons.