Maturation of the anterior petrous apex: surgical relevance for performance of the middle fossa transpetrosal approach in pediatric patients

OBJECTIVE The middle fossa transpetrosal approach to the petroclival and posterior cavernous sinus regions includes removal of the anterior petrous apex (APA), an area well studied in adults but not in children. To this end, the authors performed a morphometric analysis of the APA region during pediatric maturation. METHODS Measurements of the distance from the clivus to the internal auditory canal (IAC; C-IAC), the distance of the petrous...