Contributions to the anatomy of the cervical spine. Functional and pathogenetic significance of certain structures of the cervical vertebrae.

Following the investigations carried out on about 350 macerated vertebrae by the dissection of 120 human cadavers, a number of structural pecularities of the cervical vertebrae are described, with special emphasis on their functional and pathogenetic significance. The most specific structures of the cervical vertebrae -- the transverse, unciform, and articular processes, and the vertebral pedicle -- embody from the ontogenetic, the morphofunctional and the pathogenetic point of view, a unity named the uncotransversoarticular complex. The components of this complex delimit the spinal nerve groove, the intervertebral canal and participate in the cervical locking mechanism, in this way contributing to the protection of the vasculonervous formations passing through the cervical spine. The osteovasculonervous relationships at the level of the intervertebral canal, the anatomical variants of the intervertebral canal as well as certain possibilities of the occurrence of a cervical locking deficiency are described.