Tectorial membrane

Study entry

Classification

Ligament of the craniovertebral region.

Surfaces

From the body of C2, it rises through the foramen magnum to the center of the floor of the cranial cavity, on the inner surface of the occipital bone.

Capsule

A strong upward continuation of the posterior longitudinal ligament; it widens and covers the median atlantoaxial joint and its ligaments from behind.

Movements

It reinforces the union between the skull and the spine.

Blood supply

Spinal branches of the segmental arteries of the level, which supply the bones, the periosteum, the ligaments and the meninges around the epidural space: in the neck, from the vertebral and ascending cervical arteries; in the thorax, from the posterior intercostals; in the abdomen, from the subcostal and lumbar arteries; in the pelvis, from the iliolumbar and the lateral and median sacral arteries.

Innervation

Meningeal (recurrent) branches of the spinal nerves. They arise just after the nerve forms, return through the intervertebral foramen and supply the periosteum, the ligaments (especially the anterior longitudinal), the meninges and the annuli fibrosi of the discs. They carry pain from these structures.

Source: cap. 2, «Articulaciones craneovertebrales»; fig. 2-20 A e B; «Vascularización de la columna vertebral» e «Nervios de la columna vertebral»

Other structures in this region

• Ligamenta flava
• Cruciate ligament of the atlas (transverse ligament and longitudinal bands)
• Alar ligaments
• Anterior and posterior atlanto-occipital membranes
• Lumbosacral joints
• Joints of the vertebral bodies (intervertebral discs)
• Zygapophysial (facet) joints
• Uncovertebral joints (of Luschka)