The ligaments and annulus fibrosus of human adult cervical intervertebral discs.
METHODS
Descriptive, microdissection study.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the morphology of the human adult cervical intervertebral disc and its ligaments.


BACKGROUND
Some studies indicate that the cervical disc is distinctly different from the lumbar intervertebral disc, yet most clinical and anatomic texts appear content with extrapolating data from the lumbar spine. A detailed three-dimensional description of the cervical intervertebral disc and its surrounding ligaments is currently unavailable.


METHODS
Whole cervical spinal columns were freed from 12 human adult embalmed cadavers, and the posterior elements and soft tissues were removed. Using microdissection, the longitudinal ligaments and the fibrous components of 59 cervical intervertebral disc were resected systematically. The orientation, location, and attachments of each stripped bundle of collagen were recorded photographically and in sketches.


RESULTS
The cervical anulus fibrosus does not consist of concentric laminae of collagen fibers as in lumbar discs. Instead, it forms a crescentic mass of collagen thick anteriorly and tapering laterally toward the uncinate processes. It is essentially deficient posterolaterally and is represented posteriorly only by a thin layer of paramedian, vertically orientated fibers. The anterior longitudinal ligament covers the front of the disc, and the posterior longitudinal ligament reinforces the deficient posterior anulus fibrosus with longitudinal and alar fibers.


CONCLUSIONS
The three-dimensional architecture of the cervical anulus fibrosus is more like a crescentic anterior interosseous ligament than a ring of fibers surrounding the nucleus pulposus.
Mercer
S
S
Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Bogduk
N
N
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002102:Cadaver; D002574:Cervical Vertebrae / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007403:Intervertebral Disc / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D017846:Longitudinal Ligaments / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged