Structure of The Low Back Pain Area

The vertebral column is made up of 33 segments of bones called vertebra. The vertebral column extends from the skull to the pelvis. The vertebral column is divided into five sections:

 

1. Cervical:

The cervical section consists of the top seven vertebra and covers the area of the neck to the upper shoulders

 

2. Thoracic:

The thoracic section lies just below the cervical section and consists of twelve vertebra and covers the area of the chest. The rib cage is connected to the thoracic vertebrae.

 

3. Lumbar:

The set of five vertebrae next to the thoracic section is called the Lumbar and covers the low back part. This is the section this topic is based on.

4. Sacrum:

Below the Lumbar section, there is a set of five fused vertebra. This is called Sacrum and it lies in the pelvis region.

 

5 Coccyx:

Coccyx is the extreme low part of the vertebral column and consists of three vertebra. Coccyx forms the tail bone.

 

The lumber vertebrae bear most of the body's weight therefore, these vertebra are relatively larger in size. Since no ribs are connected to the lumber vertebra, the range of movements is larger for this section as compared to the thoracic section. As a results the nerve root compression is more common in the lumber are of the spine.

 

The vertebral column houses the spinal cord that passes through the holes between the vertebral columns. The vertebral column forms the "back bone" of our body and provides support to the head, shoulders and chest.

 

Between each vertebra except between the top two in the cervical section and in the coccyx area, there is a fibro-cartilaginous disk that acts as a shock absorber. As mentioned above, the Sacrum vertebrae are fused together therefore they do not have any inter vertebra disks.