# What is the cervical vertebræ?

Gray’s Anatomy (1918) describes the cervical vertebræ as follows: cervical vertebræ are the smallest of the true vertebræ, and can be readily distinguished from those of the thoracic or lumbar regions by the presence of a foramen in each transverse process.

## What it means

- cervical vertebræ are the smallest of the true vertebræ, and can be readily distinguished from those of the thoracic or lumbar regions by the presence of a foramen in each transverse process. The first, second, and seventh present exceptional features and must be separately described; the following characteristics are common to the remaining four. The body is small, and broader from side to side than from before backward.
- The anterior and posterior surfaces are flattened and of equal depth; the former is placed on a lower level than the latter, and its inferior border is prolonged downward, so as to overlap the upper and forepart of the vertebra below.
- The upper surface is concave transversely, and presents a projecting lip on either side; the lower surface is concave from before backward, convex from side to side, and presents laterally shallow concavities which receive the corresponding projecting lips of the subjacent vertebra.
- The pedicles are directed lateralward and backward, and are attached to the body midway between its upper and lower borders, so that the superior vertebral notch is as deep as the inferior, but it is, at the same time, narrower. The laminæ are narrow, and thinner above than below; the vertebral foramen is large, and of a triangular form. The spinous process is short and bifid, the two divisions being often of unequal size.
- The superior and inferior articular processes on either side are fused to form an articular pillar, which projects lateralward from the junction of the pedicle and lamina. The articular facets are flat and of an oval form: the superior look backward, upward, and slightly medialward: the inferior forward, downward, and slightly lateralward.
- The transverse processes are each pierced by the foramen transversarium, which, in the upper six vertebræ, gives passage to the vertebral artery and vein and a plexus of sympathetic nerves.

## Sources

- [Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body (1918)](https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/anatomy-of-the-human-body/3a-1-the-cervical-vertebr/)

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