Applied anatomy of the relation of the blood vessels and the nerves in the neck to cervical vertebrae

Xuemin LIU; Zhibing WU; Junsheng WANG; Yongqiang YANG

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:

The operation on cervical spondylosis is usually done through anterolateral cervical vertebrae to mainly expose cervical vertebrae,intervertebral disc, hook joint and so on. The recent reports are mostly local studies. The observation data of the distance between cervical vertebrae and the corresponding nervus vascularis is limited.

OBJECTIVE:

The relation of the blood vessels and nerves to cervical vertebrae was observed in neck so as to prevent iatrogenic blood vessels and nerve injuries in the operation on cervical spondyloisis.

DESIGN:

A single sample trial based on the anatomic samples

SETTING:

The department of anatomy of a medical college

PARTICIPANTS:

The experiment was conducted in the Department of Anatomy of Changzhi Medical College from July 2003 to May 2004. Twenty adult antiseptic samples with 40 sides including 36 from males and 4 from the females supported by the Department of Human Anatomy, Changzhi Medical College.

METHODS:

The accompanying relation of the blood vessels to the nerves,the length of the blood vessels, and the distances from their starting point and end to the neighboring cervical vertebrae were observed and measured in 40 adult antiseptic samples of the neck.the distances from their starting point and end point to the neighboring cervical vertebrae.

RESULTS:

Totally, 40 sides of 20 samples entered the stage of the result analysis. The facial artery followed the lingual nerve, and the length from its starting point to the neighboring cervical vertebrae C3 was ( 18.5 ± 7.2) mm. The lingual artery followed the hypogolossal nerve, and the distance from its starting point of the lingual artery to C2 -3 was( 19.7 ± 8.4)mm. The superior thyroid artery followed the lateral branch of the superior laryngeal nerve, and the distance rom its starting to the point of the superior thyroid artery to C3 was (17.0 ± 5.7) mm, and the length from the end of the superior thyroid artery to C5 was (18.2 ± 2.5 ) mm. The superior laryngeal artery followed the medial branch of the superior laryngeal nerve, and the distances from its starting point and end point to C3 were( 15.7 ± 6.7) mm and(19. 7± 5.8) mm respectively. As for the inferior thyroid artery, the distances from its starting point and the end point to C7 were ( 17.3 ± 5.5 ) mm and ( 11.3 ± 3.4 ) mm respectively.

CONCLUSION:

In the operation on cervical spondylosis, attention should be paid to the anatomic stricture of the special position at different positions so as to reduce the iatrogenic blood vessels and nerve injuries.