Skull base ligamentous mineralisation: evaluation using computed tomography and a review of the clinical relevance

Touska, Philip; Hasso, Sultana; Oztek, Alp; Chinaka, Fungayi; Connor, Steve E. J.

doi:10.1186/s13244-019-0740-8

Insights into Imaging

Table 1 Ligament characteristics

From: Skull base ligamentous mineralisation: evaluation using computed tomography and a review of the clinical relevance

Ligament	Course	Plane used for evaluation
Interclinoid ligament	Extends between the anterior and posterior clinoid processes (or occasionally middle and posterior clinoid processes). When completely mineralised, it can form a common interclinoid foramen [12, 13].	Double oblique sagittal
Caroticoclinoid (anterior interclinoid) ligament	Extends between the anterior and middle clinoid processes. When completely mineralised, it forms the clinocarotid canal traversed by the ICA [12, 14]	Double oblique axial
Petrosphenoid (Grüber’s) ligament	Extends from the petrous tubercle (medial to the trigeminal impression) at the petrous apex to the lower aspect of the posterior clinoid process [15,16,17].	Double oblique sagittal
Posterior petroclinoid ligament	Extends from the petrous ridge to the posterior clinoid process [18, 19].	Double oblique sagittal
Pterygospinous (Civinini) ligament	Extends from the spine of the sphenoid to the posterior aspect of the lateral pterygoid plate. When completely mineralised, it forms the foramen of Civinini [20,21,22].	Double oblique sagittal
Pterygoalar (Hyrtl-Calori or ‘innominate’) ligament	Extends from the root of the lateral plate of pterygoid process to the infratemporal surface of the greater sphenoid wing, lateral to the foramen spinosum. Historically, complete mineralisation of the pterygoalar ligament was termed the porus crotaphiticobuccinatorius of Hyrtl (derived from the historic term for the mandibular nerve with deep temporal—or crotaphitic—and buccinator branches) [20,21,22].	Double oblique sagittal

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