General Characteristics
- General Characteristics: The vertebral column supports the trunk, protects the spinal cord, permits movement, and transmits body weight to the pelvis. It consists of seven cervical, twelve thoracic, five lumbar, five fused sacral, and usually four fused coccygeal vertebrae. This relationship is an important landmark for clinical anatomy.
- The cervical, thoracic, and lumbar regions remain mobile vertebrae, while the sacral and coccygeal vertebrae are fused to form stronger pelvic and tailbone structures.
- General Characteristics: Normal curvatures include cervical and lumbar lordoses and thoracic and sacral kyphoses. This relationship is an important landmark for clinical anatomy.
- General Characteristics: Primary curvatures are thoracic and sacral; secondary curvatures are cervical and lumbar. This relationship is an important landmark for clinical anatomy.
- Lordosis is an anterior convex curve, kyphosis is a posterior convex curve, primary curvatures are present from fetal life, and secondary curvatures develop after birth with head control and walking.
- General Characteristics: The vertebral canal contains the spinal cord, meninges, cerebrospinal fluid, and epidural tissue. The anatomic relationship is important when interpreting spinal compression and pain.
- The meninges are protective membranes around the spinal cord, cerebrospinal fluid cushions the nervous system, and epidural tissue includes fat and veins outside the dura.
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