ABSTRACT
This chapter is intended to cover the anatomical knowledge of spine that helps trainee anesthetists who are revising for the Primary and Final FRCA exams. The topics of importance to anesthetists are presented under 'structures', 'circulation' and 'nervous system'. The chapter includes a wide range of questions of clinical relevance that are asked in the exam. The vertebral column is made up of seven cervical, 12 thoracic, five lumbar, five fused sacral and four fused coccygeal vertebrae separated by intervertebral discs. The spinal cord is the specialized nerve tissue continuous with the medulla oblongata, enclosed circumferentially by the spinal meninges and suspended in the cerebrospinal fluid. The spinal cord derives its blood supply from a single anterior spinal artery, paired posterior spinal arteries and by the communicating segmental arteries and the pial plexus. The sacral canal is a prismatic cavity which is the continuation of the lumbar spinal canal and terminates at the sacral hiatus.
