The infection occurs when water containing the amoeba is forced up into the nasal passages, attaches to the olfactory mucosa, and migrates across the
cribiform plate into the brain via the olfactory bulbs.
Postradiation examination revealed a 6-mm mass at the posterior aspect of the
cribiform plate.
Excystation occurs quickly, and the trophozoites penetrate the nervous plexus, cross the
cribiform plate and enter the brain.
The most important pathway for absorption of CSF is via lymphatics in the olfactory tract, cribiform plate and cervical lymphatic vessels(1).
The important lymphatics of the cribiform plate area are accessed in this way and deep breathing potentiates lymphatic flow in the thoracic duct.
Those thin, spaghettilike nerves run from the nose through an opening in a skull segment called the cribiform plate.
But if their conduit through the cribiform plate closes, smell loss will be irreversible.
Our experience with this case suggests a mechanism of injury to the
cribiform plate during septoplasty that has not been described previously.
If intracranial extension is present, it classically occurs through the foramen cecum or
cribiform plate and attaches extradurally to the falx cerebri.
6,7) The increasing use of powered microdebrider instruments along the skull base and thin bones of the
cribiform plate and ethmoid sinus may be associated with a greater incidence of pneumocephalus after FESS.
