• Laurent Sakka, Jean Gabrillargues, and Guillaume Coll.
• *Laboratoire d'Anatomie, Université Clermont Auvergne, Université d'Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France; ‡Service de Neurochirurgie, Pole RMND, CHU Gabriel Montpied, Clermont-Ferrand, France; §Service de Neuroradiologie, Pole RMND, CHU Gabriel Montpied, Clermont-Ferrand, France.
• Neurosurgery. 2015 Oct 6.

BackgroundThe spinal meninges have received less attention than the cranial meninges in the literature, although several points remain debatable and poorly understood, like their phylogenesis, their development, and their interactions with the spinal cord. Their constancy among the chordates shows their crucial importance in central nervous system homeostasis and suggests a role far beyond mechanical protection of the neuraxis.ObjectiveThis work provides an extensive study of the spinal meninges, from an overview of their phylogenesis and embryology to a descriptive and topographic anatomy with clinical implications. It examines their involvement in spinal cord development, functioning, and repair.MethodsThis work is a review of the literature using PubMed as a search engine on Medline.ResultsThe stages followed by the meninges along the phylogenesis could not be easily compared with their development in vertebrates for methodological aspects and convergence processes throughout evolution. The distinction between arachnoid and pia mater appeared controversial. Several points of descriptive anatomy remain debatable: the functional organization of the arterial network, and the venous and lymphatic drainages, considered differently by classical anatomic and neuroradiological approaches. Spinal meninges are involved in neurodevelopment and neurorepair producing neural stem cells and morphogens, in cerebrospinal fluid dynamics and neuraxis functioning by the synthesis of active molecules, and the elimination of waste products of central nervous system metabolism.ConclusionThe spinal meninges should be considered as dynamic functional formations evolving over a lifetime, with ultrastructural features and functional interactions with the neuraxis remaining not fully understood.AbbreviationsCNS, central nervous systemD, dayLMD, limited dorsal myeloschisis.

6 keywords...

hide…