A Study of Vertebral Synostosis and Its Clinical Significance

Knowledge about any deviation from the normal anatomy of our vertebral column is very essential especially for an orthopedician, forensic pathologist, neurologist and clinical anatomist for diagnosing the patients with such vertebral anomalies. Any congenital or acquired abnormality in the vertebrae may be either asymptomatic or a cause of discomfort and inability to carry out various day to day activities because of the important structures related to them. Fusion between the adjoining vertebrae may limit our movements especially in lumbar and cervical regions. This deviation is also helpful in identification of the individuals and is important for forensic medicine experts to know in certain situations. The present study was conducted on 48 adult dried vertebral columns to know the incidence of vertebral fusion in different regions; any associated structural abnormality, which might be a cause of neural or vascular symptoms. The incidence of fusion was seen maximum in lumbosacral region (10.46%), then in cervical, thoracic and lumbar regions in decreasing order. The causes could be congenital (failure of re-segmentation of somitomeres) or acquired thereby determining the extent of fusion between different parts of vertebrae involved in fusion.