Abstract
An in depth understanding of cervical spine anatomy is essential to the diagnosis and management of cervical spine pathology. From the osseous anatomy down to the soft tissues structures that function to stabilize, maintain, and protect the spinal cord clinicians must be able to appreciate the biomechanics and the complex anatomy. For patients managed operatively, appropriate surgical planning and operative technique rely heavily upon a sound understanding of the intricate anatomy in this region. In this chapter we detail the cervical spine anatomy with particular emphasis on the osseous, muscular, ligamentous, and neurovascular tissues with the goal of providing clinicians a comprehensive review that they can depend on and refer to when treating patients with cervical spine disease.
References
An HS, Wise JJ, Xu R (1999) Anatomy of the cervicothoracic junction: a study of cadaveric dissection, cryomicrotomy and magnetic resonance imaging. J Spinal Disord 12:519–525
Bland JH (1987) Disorders of the cervical spine. Saunders, Philadelphia
Bland JH, Boushey DR (1990) Anatomy and physiology of the cervical spine. Semin Arthritis Rheum 20:1–20
Daniels DL, Williams AL, Haughton VM (1983) Computed tomography of the articulations and ligaments at the occipito-atlantoaxial region. Radiology 146:709–716
Daniels DL, Hyde JS, Kneeland JB et al (1986) The cervical nerves and foramina: local-coil MR imaging. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 7:129–133
Ebraheim NA, Xu R, Knight T et al (1997) Morphometric evaluation of lower cervical pedicle and its projection. Spine 22:1–6
Ebraheim NA, Lu J, Yang H (1998) The effect of translation of the C1-C2 on the spinal canal. Clin Orthop Relat Res 351:222–229
Flannigan BD, Lufkin RB, McGlade C et al (1987) MR imaging of the cervical spine: neurovascular anatomy. AJR Am J Roentgenol 148:785–790
Fletcher G, Haughton VM, Ho KC, Yu SW (1990) Age-related changes in the cervical facet joints: studies with cryomicrotomy, MR, and CT. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 11:27–30
Mohamed E et al (2012) Lateral mass fixation in subaxial cervical spine: anatomic review. Glob Spine J 2(1): 039–045
Panjabi M, Dvorak J, Crisco J 3rd et al (1991a) Flexion, extension, and lateral bending of the upper cervical spine in response to alar ligament transections. J Spinal Disord 4:157–167
Panjabi MM, Duranceau J, Goel V et al (1991b) Cervical human vertebrae: quantitative three-dimensional anatomy of the middle and lower regions. Spine (Phila Pa 1976) 16:861–869
Parke WW, Sherk HH (1989) Normal adult anatomy. In: Sherk HH, Dunn EJ, Eismont FJ et al (eds) The cervical spine. Lippincott, Philadelphia, pp 11–32
Rauschning W (1991) Anatomy and pathology of the cervical spine. In: Frymoyer JW (ed) The adult spine. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia, pp 907–929
Rickenbacher J, Landolt AM, Theiler K (1982) Applied anatomy of the back. Springer, Berlin
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Yow, B.G., Piscoya, A.S., Wagner, S.C. (2020). Cervical Spine Anatomy. In: Cheng, B. (eds) Handbook of Spine Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33037-2_2-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33037-2_2-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-33037-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-33037-2
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences