Detailed anatomy of the intracranial portion of the trigeminal nerve

✓ Fifty trigeminal nerves were studied at autopsy under various magnifications. Two findings that could explain the preservation of sensation after rhizotomy of the main sensory root are: 1) anastomosis between the motor and sensory root in the majority of nerves, and 2) aberrant sensory rootlets that arose from the pons separately from the main sensory root in one half of the nerves. The motor root is composed of as many as 14 separately originating rootlets that usually join about 1 cm from the pons. At the pontine level, the first division fibers are usually dorsomedial and the third division fibers caudolateral within the main sensory root. However, the third division fibers may vary from being almost directly lateral to directly caudal to the first division fibers. This may explain the variability of sensory loss with partial section in the posterior fossa.