Comparison of the occurrence rates of cervical nerve entrapment at cervical intervertebral foramen and spinal nervous sulcus

Yingping LI; Ruifang GUO; Haiqing WEN

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:

Nerve root could be directly or indirectly entrapped due to lateral backward prolapse of nucleus pulposus of intervertebral disc, as well as parenchymal inflammatory tumefaction of the soft tissues in nerve root tube. But the factors and their severity related to cervical nerve entrapment at cervical intervertebral foramen and spinal nervous sulcus still need further studies.

OBJECTIVE:

To investigate the relationship between the occurrence rate of cervical nerve entrapment at cervical intervertebral foramen and spinal nervous sulcus and the severity of cervical syndrome.

DESIGN:

A single sample study.

SETTING:

Department of Anatomy, Department of Geriatrics of the Affiliated Hospital, and Department of Teaching Affairs, Chengde Medical College.

PARTICIPANTS:

The research was conducted in the Department of Anatomy, Chengde Medical College. Totally 120 sides of 60 cadavers(28 males and 32 females) were provided by the Department of Anatomy.

METHODS:

The outside diameters of cervical intervertebral foramen and spinal nerve root, as well as the width of external opening of spinal nerve sulcus and transverse diameter width of the anterior branch of intra-spinal nerve were measured, and the data were dealt with statistically.MAIN OUTCOME

MEASURES:

The ratio of transversal diameter of the forepart of cervical nerves to the width of spinal nerve sulcus; the ratio of the peripheral diameter of cervical nerve roots to the size of intervertebral foramen; the occurrence rate where the ratio was ≥ 1.

RESULTS:

The ratio between cervical nerve root and intervertebral foramen was significantly larger than that between spinal nerve root and spinal nerve sulcus( t = 2.66, P ＜ 0.01 ). The occurrence rate of cervical nerve entrapment at the intervertebral foramen(24.6% ) was higher than that in spinal nerve sulcus(6.3% ), and the difference had a considerable statistical significance(x2 =6.95, P ＜ 0.01).

CONCLUSION:

It is suggested that the spinal nerve may be entrapped in the cervical intervertebral foramen and the spinal nervous sulcus, and the spinal nerve lesions in the cervical intervertebral foramen was more serious than in the spinal nervous sulcus. Therefore, in clinic, when diagnosing and treating cervical spondylosis, while nerve entrapment at the intervertebral foramen is fully considered, the possibility of nerve entrapment at the spinal nervous sulcus should not be neglected.