An Osteological Study Of Foramen Transversarium Of Cervical Vertebrae And Its Clinical Significance

Introduction: Seven cervical vertebrae constitute the skeletal framework of the neck. Along with the otheridentification points, the cardinal feature of a cervical vertebra whether typical or atypical is the presence ofForamen transversarium on the transverse process. This foramen transmits the Vertebral artery, Vertebral veinand Sympathetic nerves. These foramina are known to have variations in size, shape and numbers and may beabsent, incomplete or duplicate, which may lead to various symptoms. Their etiology is related with the variationsin the course of the Vertebral artery due to developmental reasons.Materials and methods: Three hundred dry human cervical vertebrae were collected and studied in the departmentof Anatomy, PSG Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Coimbatore. We included all the Cervical vertebraeincluding Atlas, Axis and all other cervical vertebrae. We observed the presence, size, shape and variations ofForamen transversarium of cervical vertebrae during our study.Observations and results: Out of three hundred Cervical vertebrae, One hundred and twenty five cervical vertebrae(42%) had variations of Foramen transversarium like Complete / incomplete Accessory foramen, triple foramenon one side, absence of foramen on one side and unequal size of foramen on both the sides. The different typesof shapes of foramen transversarium were also analysed and tabulated. The areas of foramen transversariumwere measured after measuring all the diameters.Conclusion: Variations in the Foramen transversarium may indicate, the variation in the course of the Vertebralartery. The present study was important clinical implications for Head and neck and vascular surgeries. Thesevariations should be kept in our mind during surgeries on cervical spine.