Synonyms
- LWS
- Lumbar vertebra
- Lumbar vertebral body
- Lordosis – Hyperlordosis
- Lumbalgia
- Lumbago
- Lumboischialgia
- Lumbar spine syndrome
Anatomy
The lumbar spine (lumbar spine) is part of the spinal column. It usually consists of 5 lumbar vertebrae. The lumbar vertebral bodies are numbered 1 – 5 from the head to the rump.
As a mostly harmless standard variant, the 5 lumbar vertebral bodies can be fused with the first sacral vertebra. In this case the physician speaks of sacralization (from Os sacrum = sacrum). In this case, the lumbar spine consists of only 4 vertebral bodies.
Alternatively, the natural fusion of the first sacral vertebra with the remaining 4 sacral vertebrae may not occur. In this case, this is called lumbarization. Naturally, the lumbar spine has a slight curvature when viewed from the side (lordosis).
If this curvature increases, a hollow back develops (hyperlordosis) and flattens out, resulting in a flat back (hypolordosis). The single lumbar vertebra consists of a lumbar vertebral body (Corpus vertebra), a lumbar arch (Arcus vertebra), 4 small vertebral joints (right and left, top and bottom), a spinous process (Processus spinosus), a transverse process and a vertebral hole (Foramen vertebrale). Together with the adjacent vertebral bodies (above and below), an exit opening for the spinal nerves is formed (neuroforamen).
Together with the other vertebral holes, the vertebral hole of a single vertebral body forms a bony canal, the spinal canal or spinal cord canal (spinal canal). The spinal cord runs through the spinal canal, which in adults ends at about the level of the second lumbar vertebra. Below the second lumbar vertebra is the so-called horse’s tail (cauda equina). The horse’s tail consists only of nerves that float in the cerebrospinal fluid (liquor cerebrospinalis) and are surrounded by the hard skin of the spinal cord (dura mater) in a kind of tube.
- Intervertebral disc (blue)
- Vertebral body
- Sacrum (red)
- Vertebral body
- Transverse process
- Articular Process Vertebral Joint
- Spinous process
- Whirling hole
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