Observation of the Internal Opening of the Cervical Spinal Nerve Sulcus and Nerves

Objective To investigate the relationship between the internal opening of the spinal nerve sulcus and the spinal nerve lesion. Methods The width of the medial opening of spinal nerve sulcus and the outside diameters of spinal nerves were measured on 20 adult cadavers and 44 adult dry cervical vertebrae. the ratios of the spinal nerve external diameters to the width of the medial opening of the spinal nerve sulcus were processed statistically. Results The diameters of the internal opening of spinal nerve sulcus were 2.7±0.7 mm for C 3,2.7±0.7 mm for C 4,2.8±0.8mm for C 5,4.8±0.9 mm for C 6,5.3±1.1 mm for C 7 respectively. The width of the internal opening of the spinal nerve sulcus were 5.8±1.0 mm for C 3,5.5±0.9 mm for C 4,5.6±1.0 mm for C 5,5.5±1.1 mm for C 6,6.2±1.0 mm for C 7 respectively. The ratios of diameters of the spinal nerves to the width of the internal opening of the spinal nerve sulcus were 1∶2.15 for C 3, 1∶2.05 for C 4, 1∶1.98 for C 5, 1∶1.14 for C 6, 1∶1.18 for C 7 respectively. Conclusion The internal opening of the spinal nerve sulcus has intimate relations with the cervical spinal nerve lesions and the rate of the spinal nerve lesion is probably much higher at C 6 and C 7 segments than at C 3 and C 4 segments.