Hakuba's triangle: a cadaveric study detailing its anatomy and neurovascular contents with vascular and skull base implications

Abstract

Hakuba's triangle is a superior cavernous sinus triangle that allows for wide and relatively safe exposure of vascular and neoplastic lesions. This study provides cadaveric measurements of the borders of Hakuba's triangle and describes its neurovascular contents in order to enrich the available literature. The anatomical borders of the Hakuba's triangle (lateral, medial, and posterior borders) were defined based on Hakuba's description and identified. Then the triangle was dissected to reveal its morphology and relationship with adjacent neurovascular structures in Embalmed Caucasian cadaveric specimens. The oculomotor nerve occupied roughly one-third of the area of the triangle and the nerve was more or less parallel to its medial border. The mean lengths of the lateral border, posterior border, and medial border were 17 mm ± 0.5 mm, 12.2 mm ± 0.4 mm, and 10.6 mm ± 0.4 mm, respectively. The mean area of Hakuba's triangle was 63.9 mm² ± 4.4 mm². In this study, we provided cadaveric measurements of the borders of Hakuba's triangle along with descriptions of its neurovascular contents.

Keywords: Cadaver; Cavernous internal carotid; Cavernous sinus; Oculomotor nerve; Skull base.