Uncovertebral joints (of Luschka)

Study entry

Classification

Controversial: for some, synovial; for others, degenerative clefts of the disc, filled with extracellular fluid.

Surfaces

Between the uncinate processes of the bodies of C3 or C4 to C6 or C7 and the beveled inferolateral surfaces of the bodies immediately above.

Capsule

They develop after age 10 on the lateral and posterolateral edges of the intervertebral discs. The surfaces are covered by cartilage moistened by fluid from a potential space, the "capsule."

Movements

[CHECK: Moore does not describe it in the passages consulted (look in another source).]

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, distributed over the anterolateral surface of the vertebral bodies and the discs; they supply mainly the annuli fibrosi and the anterior longitudinal ligament.

Clinical

A frequent site of bone spurs in old age.

Source: cap. 2, «Articulaciones de la columna vertebral»: articulaciones uncovertebrales; «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
• Tectorial membrane
• Anterior and posterior atlanto-occipital membranes
• Lumbosacral joints
• Joints of the vertebral bodies (intervertebral discs)
• Zygapophysial (facet) joints