[Prenatal development of cerebral veins and sinuses with variants and dysplasias]

A review is given on the development of the cerebral veins and sinuses in man illustrated by schematic drawings and phlebograms of comparable embryos and fetuses of higher vertebrates. The system of venous sinuses arises early in development from three dural plexuses and the primary head sinus according to a constant pattern. The internal cerebral veins and particularly the temporo-basal veins arise at a later stage from longitudinal anastomoses of ventral segmental veins of the pial venous plexus of the brainstem. Accordingly they exhibit a high degree of variability in the adult.