What is "basal vein"

n. a large vein passing along the medial surface of the temporal lobe and emptying into the great cerebral vein [syn: vena basalis]

The basal vein is a vein in the brain. It is formed at the anterior perforated substance by the union of

• (a) a small anterior cerebral vein which accompanies the anterior cerebral artery and supplies the medial surface of the frontal lobe by the fronto-basal vein.
• (b) the deep middle cerebral vein (deep Sylvian vein), which receives tributaries from the insula and neighboring gyri, and runs in the lower part of the lateral cerebral fissure, and
• (c) the inferior striate veins, which leave the corpus striatum through the anterior perforated substance.

The basal vein passes backward around the cerebral peduncle, and ends in the internal cerebral vein ( vein of Galen); it receives tributaries from the interpeduncular fossa, the inferior horn of the lateral ventricle, the hippocampal gyrus, and the mid-brain.