The transsphenoidal approach of the skull base has become a usual surgical procedure which targets the sellar, parasellar and suprasellar regions of the middle cranial fossa, as well as Meckel's cave and the clivus 1 . Anatomical studies are essential in increasing the anatomical knowledge and improving surgical performance 2 . Although pituitary surgery is traditionally within the realm of neurosurgeons, otolaryngologists became active partners in the surgical management of hypophysis to decrease rates of complications and morbidity 3 , being known that the posterior ethmoid air cells and the sphenoid sinus are surrounded by more vital structures than any other sinus 4 .The sphenoid sinus is probably the most variably pneumatized structure of the skull; its recesses are able to facilitate minimally invasive access to different surgical targets, thus it play roles in the selection of surgical procedures 1 . From a developmental point of view, the sphenoid sinus will not reach its full extension until adolescence and it may occasionally extend into the vomer, ethmoid, palatine and occipital bones, as well as in different parts of the sphenoid bone, such as the anterior clinoid process, the lesser wing and the great wing, and the pterygoid process 5 . The pneumatizations of the anterior clinoid process and pterygoid process are surprisingly common 6 .According to its sagittal extension, as related to the sella turcica, the sphenoid sinus was classified either in three, or in four types. There are authors describing sellar, presellar and conchal types of sinus, which occur in 55%, 17% and, respectively, 28% of cases 7 . This classification in three types was suggested by Congdon in 1920 8 . Other authors also considered the postsellar pneumatization 9 which can occur in more than 50% of cases 10 . There were not found differences in regard to age, gender and ethnicity 9 .The lateral recess of the sphenoid sinus was evaluated in relation to the pterygopalatine fossa, and was classified in six types: type I, in which such recess is absent in the posterior fossa wall, type II, when the recess reaches above the vidian canal, type III with the recess engaged between the vidian and maxillary nerve canals, type IV, of alar pneumatization, type V, in which the root of the pterygoid process lodges the pneumatic expansion and type VI, of combined alar and pterygoid pneumatizations 11 . aBSTRaCT BaCKgROund. The pneumatization pattern of the sphenoid sinus seems rather unpredictable, as resulted from previous