Small Animal Spine Flashcards
Vertebral column components
Cervical: 7 Thoracic: 13 Lumbar: 7 Sacral: 3 Cd: variable
Spinal cord column components
Cervical: 8 Thoracic: 13 Lumbar: 7 Sacral: 3 Cd: variable
Which cervical vertebrae has a large transverse process?
- C6
Where is the first intervertebral disc?
- Between C2 and C3
Where do nerve roots exit in general?
- lateral to the cord segment
Where do nerve roots exit from C1?
- Via lateral foramen of C1
Where do nerve roots exit from C2-C8?
- Cranial intervertebral foramen
What do you use during ventral slot surgery to localize?
- Large wings of C6
For an atlanto-occipital tap, what is the landmark?
- Use wings of atlas and spinous process of C2
Thoracic spine characteristics
- No transverse processes
- They attach to the ribs
- If you find one vertebra with a rib and one without, you know you’re at T13-L1
Where do nerve roots exit in the thoracic spine?
- Caudal intervertebral foramina (i.e. behind the corn segment
How many cord segments in the thoracic spine, and where do they live relative to their respective vertebral body?
- 13 cord segments, and each cord segment lives in its respective vertebral body (e.g. T3 cord segment is in the T3 vertebral canal)
How can we distinguish T1 from C7?
- Cranial vertebrae have prominent spinous processes
How can we distinguish the T13-L1 junction?
- Thoracic vertebrae have ribs, and lumbar vertebrae do not
Where do the cord segments in the lumbar spine live relative to their respective lumbar vertebrae?
- They don’t always line up
- L2 aligns with L2 segment
- L5 vertebral body has S1-3 segments
- L3-L7 segments are in the L3 and L4 vertebral bodies
What is in the vertebral canal after L5?
- Cauda equine nerve roots
What is the significance of a lesion localizing to L6-L7?
- If you have a vertebral body lesion, you need to go more cranial than you might expect
Other featurse of lumbar vertebrae that are unique?
- Prominent articular processes
- Transverse processes that are fairly ventral on the body, and orient cranially
Make sure you can identify the following:
- Dorsal spinous process
- Spinal cord
- Articular process
- Anulus fibrosus
- Transverse process
- Nucleus pulposus
- Draw it out and know it
Know the following:
Various parts of the vertebrae
Anatomy of the spinal cord relative to the vertebrae
- Number of vertebrae in each of its segments
- Just know it
Compare and contrast the dorsal spinous process of cervical spine vs thoracic spine vs lumbar
- Dorsal spinous process is quite short on the cervical spine
- Very pronounced on the thoracic spine
- Lumbar is kind of in-between?
Label the following on the cervical spine:
- Dorsal spinous process
- Articular process
- Transverse foramina
- Transverse process
Just do it
