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The facet joints (also zygapophysial joints, zygapophyseal, apophyseal, or Z-joints) are a set of synovial, plane joints between the articular processes of two adjacent vertebrae. There are two facet joints in each spinal motion segment and each facet joint is innervated by the recurrent meningeal nerves.
Facet joints also prevent each vertebra from slipping over the one below. A small capsule surrounds each facet joint providing a nourishing lubricant for the joint. Also, each joint has a rich supply of tiny nerve fibers that provide a painful stimulus when the joint is injured or irritated. Inflamed facets can cause a powerful muscle spasm.
The pars interarticularis, or pars for short, is the part of a vertebra located between the inferior and superior articular processes of the facet joint. [1] [2] In the transverse plane, it lies between the lamina and pedicle. In other words, in the axial view, it is the bony mass between the facets that is anterior to the lamina and posterior ...
In most cases this occurs in the lowest of the lumbar vertebrae (L5), but may also occur in the other lumbar vertebrae, as well as in the thoracic vertebrae. Spinal disc herniation , more commonly called a slipped disc , is the result of a tear in the outer ring ( anulus fibrosus ) of the intervertebral disc , which lets some of the soft gel ...
The actual region of contact is called the articular facet. [1] Articular processes spring from the junctions of the pedicles and laminæ, and there are two right and left, and two superior and inferior. These stick out of an end of a vertebra to lock with a zygapophysis on the next vertebra, to make the backbone more stable.
In the more narrow sense, it refers to spinal osteoarthritis, the age-related degeneration of the spinal column, which is the most common cause of spondylosis. The degenerative process in osteoarthritis chiefly affects the vertebral bodies, the neural foramina and the facet joints (facet syndrome).
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Spinal stenoses at the lumbar region are usually due to disc herniation, hypertrophy of the facet joint and ligamentum flavum, osteophyte, and spondylolisthesis. An uncommon cause of lumbar spinal stenosis is spinal epidural lipomatosis , a condition where there is excessive deposit of fat in the epidural space, causing compression of nerve ...