Ossification in the Lumbo-Sacral Region

Abstract

The case of a rare bilateral ossification in the interval between the fifth lumbar vertebra and sacrum in a woman of eighteen years reported by Girdlestone and Thurstan Holland1 revives anew the question of the morphology of the various elements associated with the transverse process of the fifth lumbar vertebra. In this case the authors describe small centres of ossification “lying just above the lateral masses of the sacrum…. below the shadows of the fifth lumbar transverse processes and deeper (from before back) than these processes.” Girdlestone and Thurstan Holland suggest that the shadows seen on the radiograph are caused by a separate ossification in relation to the mammillary processes of the first sacral vertebra, and that they are of an epiphysial nature. The fifth lumbar vertebra, variable as it is in most of its characters, presents the widest range of variation in its transverse process and in its accessory process. The transverse process is essentially a costal element; the accessory process...