Anatom3DDura mater
Dura mater · Tvrdá plena
Nervous system
Looks like
The tough, leathery outer membrane lining the inside of the skull and wrapping the spinal cord.
What it does
Protects the brain and carries large veins that drain it.
Keeping it well
Bleeding outside or under it follows head injury; in older people on blood thinners, confusion days or weeks after a minor bump needs a scan.
Its parts
Related conditions
- Acute liver failure
- ADHD
- African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness)
- Alcohol withdrawal and delirium tremens
- Altitude sickness
- Alzheimer's disease
- Amyloidosis (AL and ATTR)
- Autism spectrum disorder
- Bipolar disorder
- Birth asphyxia (hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy)
- Body dysmorphic disorder
- Botulism
- Brain abscess
- Brain aneurysm
- Brain tumour (glioma & meningioma)
- Cerebral palsy
- Chickenpox (varicella)
- Chronic insomnia
- Chronic neuropathic pain
- Chronic pain syndrome
- Cluster headache
- Concussion (mild TBI)
- Congenital hypothyroidism
- Cryptococcal meningitis
- Delirium
- Down syndrome (trisomy 21)
- Drowning
- Eating disorders
- Encephalitis
- Epilepsy
- Essential tremor & dystonia
- Fainting (syncope)
- Febrile seizures
- Fibromyalgia
- Fragile X syndrome
- Frailty & falls in older age
- Functional (somatic) symptom disorder
- Generalised anxiety disorder
- Guillain-Barré syndrome
- Haemorrhagic stroke
- Heat exhaustion & heatstroke
- Hepatic encephalopathy
- Huntington's disease
- Hydrocephalus
- Hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar)
- Intellectual disability
- Ischaemic stroke
- Japanese encephalitis
- Lead poisoning
- Long COVID (post-viral syndrome)
- Lyme disease
- Major depressive disorder
- ME/chronic fatigue syndrome
- Measles
- Medication-overuse headache
- Meningitis
- Migraine
- Multiple sclerosis
- Mumps
- Myasthenia gravis
- Narcolepsy
- Neonatal sepsis
- Neurocysticercosis
- Normal pressure hydrocephalus
- Parkinson's disease
- Peripheral neuropathy
- Phenylketonuria (PKU)
- Poisoning & overdose
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Postnatal depression
- Postpartum psychosis
- Rabies
- Restless legs syndrome
- Roseola (sixth disease)
- Schizophrenia
- Self-harm and suicidal crisis
- Shingles (herpes zoster)
- Spina bifida & neural tube defects
- Subdural haematoma
- Substance use disorder
- Tension-type headache
- Tetanus
- Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP)
- Tick-borne encephalitis
- Tics and Tourette syndrome
- Toxoplasmosis & CMV
- Transient ischaemic attack
- Traumatic brain injury (moderate to severe)
- Tuberous sclerosis complex
- Vascular dementia
- Vitamin B1, C and other deficiencies