Microsurgical Anatomy of and Surgical Approaches to the Jugular Foramen

The jugular foramen (JF) is formed by the temporal and occipital bones. It is located inferomedial to the temporal bone, inferior to the internal auditory canal (IAC), lateral to the jugular tubercle, and anterosuperior to the jugular process [13, 14, 18, 31]. The jugular bulb, which connects the sigmoid sinus to the internal jugular vein, is situated in the JF, and the lower cranial nerves (CNs) pass through it. In addition, the meningeal branches of the ascending pharyngeal artery pass through the JF to enter the posterior cranial fossa after ascending between the internal carotid artery (ICA) and internal jugular vein. Because the JF opens on the intra- and extracranial sides, most tumors of the JF grow in these two directions [4, 12, 17, 24, 25, 32, 42, 43].