If you or someone dear to you is a victim of a spinal cord injury, you probably have a vested interest in learning about the anatomy of the spinal cord. Studying the anatomy will help you comprehend the sheer significance of the damage an injury does to it. The spinal cord works with the brain as it constantly sends and receives messages via nerve pathways connected to the rest of the body. The location of a spinal injury determines what body parts will be affected by the damage, and knowing whether the injury is partial or complete will give you an indication of the symptoms that the victim will experience.
Understanding the essentials of spinal cord anatomy begins with the knowledge that the back contains 33 bones called vertebrae. Sandwiched between the vertebrae are discs constructed of stretchy, fibrous cartilage that serve as shock absorbers. Besides providing cushion for the vertebrae, they also allow your spine to flex with ease. Your back also contains 40 muscles that connect to a series of ligaments and tendons running from the base of the skull to the tailbone. There are 31 couplings of nerves in your back as well. The spinal column is broken up into three areas:
The cervical spine is made up of seven vertebrae and is the grouping located at the top of the spine. These vertebrae enable us to turn our head, bend, extend, and flex. The bone structure in the cervical region is tinier than the remaining vertebrae found further down your back.
The thoracic spine, which is the middle group even with the chest, is comprised of 12 vertebrae. One important thing to know about the thoracic spine is that the canal through which the spinal cord runs is narrower through this section that it is in the cervical or lumbosacral spine. For this reason, if the thoracic region is injured, you are more susceptible to sustaining a serious spinal cord injury because there is not much margin for error. On the contrary, the other two areas have a larger gap between the bone and spinal cord. This allows more leeway during traumatic injury before the bone comes in contact with the spinal cord.
The base, called the lumbosacral spine, is composed of five vertebrae that enable you to bend forward, sideways, and backwards. That is followed by five fused sacral vertebrae that are about even with the hips. At the very bottom lies the smallest group of four fused vertebrae in the coccyx.
The nervous system includes the central nervous system, peripheral nervous system, and cranial nerves. The spinal cord, which belongs to the central nervous system, is approximately 17 inches long and runs from the brain to the lower back. It is encased by the vertebral column, otherwise known as the backbone. The same three membranes that surround the brain also protect the spinal cord.
The peripheral nerves extend from the cervical, thoracic, and lumbosacral regions and are identified according to the namesake of the section of the spinal column that they originated. The technical terminology used to label nerves is based on the section and vertebrae at which the injury happened. For instance, the site of a C5 injury would be located precisely at the fifth level of the cervical spine. The nerves branching out of the spinal cord segments target certain areas of the body. Cervical nerves manage signals sent to the neck, arms, and hands, thoracic nerves direct signals to the torso and portions of the arms, and lumbosacral nerves transmit signals to the hips, groin, legs, and toes.
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