Spinal Anatomy- Cervical Spine

Dr.Avinash.KM

MS(Surgery),MRCSed(UK), MCh(Neurosurgery), FINR(Switzerland), FMINS(Germany).

Consultant Neurosurgeon

Specialist Spine Surgeon

Spinal column, which is made up of 33 bones called vertrbrae

The spine itself is divided into four sections,

·         Cervical vertebrae (one to seven, which are located in the neck)

·         Thoracic vertebrae (one through 12, which are located in the upper back and attached to the ribcage)

·         Lumbar vertebrae (one through five, which are located in the lower back)

·         Sacral vertebrae (one through five, which are located in the pelvis)

Spinal Column and Nerve roots: 33 spinal bones and 31 nerve roots

Cervical Spine and cervical nerve roots:

Eight pairs of cervical nerves (called C1-C8) exit the cervical cord at each vertebral level. One member of the pair exits on the right side, and the other exits on the left. The first cervical root exits above the C1 vertebra. The second cervical root exits between the C1-C2 segment, and the remaining roots exit just below the correspondingly numbered vertebra. The C8 nerve root exits between the C7 and T1 vertebra.

Cervical vertebra and roots:

Each cervical root supplies supplies neck, shoulders and arms as shown in above diagram.

Cervical disc:

There are six cervical discs and 23 total discs in the entire spinal column. Each cervical disc rests between the cervical vertebrae, acts as a shock absorber in the cervical spine and allows the neck to handle much stress.

 Cervical nerve root and neural foramina:

Each nerve roots emerges from the spinal cord, comes out through the neural foramina. Neural foramina is an important space which is surrounded all round by bone. This is the space where nerve root can be compressed when normal disc herniates into this space. Since neural foramina is a space surrounded all around by bone, any extra material into this space will compress the corresponding nerve roots causing root pain.