Info Clinical Implications Regarding The Thoracolumbar Junction

At or almost the thoracolumbar junction, the facet surfaces of the apophyseal joints alter their orientation from near=frontal to near-sagittal planes. The exact request of this transition, is variable, oftentimes starting i or 2 junctions cranialward. This transition may practise a sagittal plane hypermobility too instability at the portion inwards specific cases.

This is evident when a immature man child alongside cerebral palsy attempts to back upwardly himself upwardly on his knees. The lack of command too weakness of his body muscles allows the thoracolumbar junction to collapse into the plane of to the lowest degree body resistance creating a hyperlordosis at the region.

As a minute example, the aforementioned precipitous transition inwards apopheseal joints may partially explicate the relatively high incidence of traumatic paraplegia at the thoracolumbar junction. In for certain high touching on accidents involving body flexion, the thorax, held relatively stiff past times the rib cage, is gratis to violently flex equally a unit of measurement over the upper lumbar region. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 large flexion torque delivered to the chest may concentrate an excessive hyperflexion stress at the request of transition. If severe enough, the stress may fracture or dislocate the bony elements too perchance hurt the caudal terminate of the spinal cord. Surgical fixation devices implanted to immobilize an unstable thoracolumbar junction are specially susceptible to stress failure, compared alongside devices implanted inwards other regions of the vertebral column.

Reference: Neumann AD. Kinesiology of the Musculoskeletal System: Foundations for Rehabilitation. sec ed. Missouri: Mosby Elsevier. 2010; p. 348.

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