Diaphragma sellae

The diaphragma sellae or sellar diaphragm is a flat piece of dura mater with a circular hole allowing the vertical passage of the pituitary stalk. It retains the pituitary gland beneath it in the fossa hypophyseos as it almost completely roofs the fossa hypophyseos of the sella turcica, a part of the sphenoid bone. It has a posterior boundary at the dorsum sellae and an anterior boundary at the tuberculum sellae along with the two small eminences (one on either side) called the middle clinoid processes. The diaphragma sellae is innervated by the first division of the cranial trigeminal nerve.

Diaphragma sellae
Tentorium cerebelli seen from above. (Diaphragma sellae labeled at upper left.)
Details
Identifiers
LatinDiaphragma sellae
TA98A14.1.01.107
TA25378
FMA78540
Anatomical terminology

Surgical Significance

Violation of the diaphragma sellae during an endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal pituitary tumor resection will result in a cerebrospinal fluid leak.

Additional images
  • Dura mater and its processes exposed by removing part of the right half of the skull, and the brain.
  • Human brain dura mater (reflections)

References

This article incorporates text in the public domain from page 814 of the 20th edition of Gray's Anatomy (1918)


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