Venous drainage dominance of the dural venous sinuses may be defined as the drainage only or mainly into one of the transverse sinuses, as shown by bilateral carotid angiography. The aim of this study was to evaluate the venous drainage dominance in bilateral carotid angiograms of 189 cases retrospectively. Among these cases 41.3% showed drainage mainly to the right side, 37.6% showed equal drainage to each side, 18.5% showed drainage mainly to the left side, 2.1% showed drainage only to the right side and 0.53% showed drainage only to the left side. Cerebral venous drainage dominance is of great importance and should be considered before operations on patients for radical neck dissection, removal of tumors in the neck that invade the internal jugular vein or tumors of the glomus jugulare which may require ligation of the internal jugular vein.

The use of tissue adhesives as an alternative to or replacement for sutures in wound closure has long been an area of interest. One of these tissue adhesives is a cyanoacrylate. In 15 patients, who underwent root resections of the upper incisors on both sides, the incision lines were closed with silk sutures on one side and by n-butyl-2-cyanoacrylate on the other side of the frenum. Clinical comparison was made on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 7th, 14th and 21st postoperative days. On the seventh postoperative day following the removal of sutures and the coating, small punch biopsies were obtained from n-butyl-2-cyanoacrylate treated and sutured sides. The tissue specimens were examined under transmission electron microscope. Clinical observations revealed that on the third and seventh postoperative days epithelialization was better on the sides treated with n-butyl-2-cyanoacrylate. On the twenty-first postoperative day it was observed that the scar formation was significantly more marked and there was more local inflammation during the healing period on the sutured side. Electron microscopic observations of both tissue specimens revealed normal ultrastructural morphology.

The anomalous first parts of the left and right subclavian aa. had no inferior thyroid aa. in the neck region. The thyroidea ima a. was found to arise from the brachiocephalic trunk, and bifurcated into two branches almost immediately after its origin. These branches ascended in front of the trachea and entered the bases of the right and left lobes of the thyroid gland. The left vertebral a. arose from the aortic arch in the superior mediastinum. The possible existence of this anomaly is important for parathyroid localization studies, in neck surgery and especially in tracheostomy.

The aetiology of incomplete adrenergic denervation and reduction in the number and caliber of the cerebral vessels in hydrocephalus is still obscure. Stretching of the blood vessels alone is far from explaining these major vascular changes. Previous studies have shown that increased lipid peroxidation produces toxic effects on vessels. This experimental study was designed to investigate the possible aetiology of vascular changes in hydrocephalic rats with special reference to lipid peroxidation. Hydrocephalus was induced by injecting 50 mg/Kg sterilized kaolin suspension into the cisterna magna in 10 rats (Group A). A sham operation was performed for Group B. After three weeks the rats were anaesthetized and perfused transcardially. The brains were dissected, and cut to visualize the degree of hydrocephalus. The arteries of the circle of Willis were removed for light microscopic examination and the brains were kept for the measurement of lipid peroxidation levels. Light microscopic studies of cerebral arteries in hydrocephalic rats revealed spastic vessels with folding and corrugation of the lamina elastica. The level of lipid peroxidation in group A (260 +/- 9.129 nmol TBAR/gr wet tissue) was significantly higher than that of group B (106 +/- 3.59 nmol TBAR/gr wet tissue). It is suggested that vascular changes observed in hydrocephalic rats may be due to the high level of lipid peroxidation, which in turn may be the consequence of ischaemia caused by the hydrocephalus related stretching of cerebral vessels.

We describe a rare anomaly in the submental region of a single male cadaver specimen. The anterior belly of the right digastric muscle was observed to have three separate insertions. Most medial of these crossed the midline and inserted to the digastric fossa with the opposite digastric muscle. These muscle bands were united in a common tendon as they continued with the posterior belly. This is an anatomical variation in the mylohyoid digastric muscle group in the floor of the mouth. Consideration of such variations of the anterior bellies of the digastric muscles should be noted during the evaluation of the floor of the mouth in the CT examination or MR imaging. 0 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.