Anatomy of the vertebral column

The vertebral column, synonymous with spinal column or spine, and known colloquially as the backbone, forms the central axis of the body's skeleton. Superiorly, it articulates with the skull, and inferiorly, it articulates with the two hip bones which in turn give attachment to the lower limbs. The vertebral column comprises the following five regions in cephalocaudal sequence: cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacral and coccygeal. The vertebral column contains the spinal cord within the vertebral canal and thereby protects the spinal cord from external trauma. Degenerative diseases of the vertebral column account for the vast majority of spinal disorders in clinical practice. Trauma, neoplastic disease and developmental anomalies account for most of the remainder of spinal problems. Optimal medical and surgical management of spinal disease are crucially dependent on accurate clinical and radiological diagnosis and these, in turn, are reliant on a sound understanding of the structural and functional anatomy of the vertebral column. In this article a general description of the articulated vertebral column is followed by a description of the morphology of representative vertebrae from the vertebral regions.