AUTHOR=Cicek Caner , Orhun Ömer , Cevik Orhun Mete , Rzayeva Lala , Güdük Mustafa , Usseli Murat İmre , Aksoy Mehmet Emin , Emel Erhan , Pamir M. Necmettin , Bozkurt Baran 

TITLE=Endoscopy-assisted high cervical anterolateral retropharyngeal approach to clivus: a cadaveric study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Surgery

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2024

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/surgery/articles/10.3389/fsurg.2024.1397729

DOI=10.3389/fsurg.2024.1397729

ISSN=2296-875X

ABSTRACT=The surgical management of pathologies involving the clivus and craniocervical junction has always been considered a complex procedure because of the deeply located surgical targets and the surrounding complex neural and vascular anatomical structures. The most commonly used approaches to reach this area are transnasal, transoral, and transcervical approaches. We described a modified endoscope-assisted high cervical anterolateral retropharyngeal approach in which each stage of the procedure was demonstrated on human cadavers in a step-by-step manner using endoscopic camera views. This approach was performed unilaterally on 5 cadaver heads and bilaterally on 1 cadaver head. This approach was broken down into 9 steps. The neurovascular structures encountered at each step and their relationships with each other are demonstrated.