Sacralisation of Lumbar Vertebrae in Karnataka Region

The vertebral coloumn in humans is made up of 31 vertebrae which act as a stalk to hold the weight of the indivisual in erect posture. Lumbosacral transitional vertebrae (LSTV) are common congenital anomalies of the human spine. In LSTV, either the fifth lumbar vertebra may show assimilation to the sacrum (sacralisation), or the first sacral vertebra may show transition to a lumbar con- figuration (lumbarisation). Although the condition has an incidence of over 12% in the general population, knowledge about the exact clinical implications is still lacking. The present study was done on dry sacrum in the department of Anatomy S.I.M.S. & R.C. Shimoga where the sacralisation was seen in 5 out of 115 sacrum studied in this region. This finding can shed some light in evaluating the causes of low back pain in patients and also may come in the way of counting the vertebrae in spine surgeries in which case the 5th lumbar vertebra can be mistakenly counted as first piece of sacrum. The occurrence of sacralisation in general population is 3.6 -- 18% and in many cases it is one of the reasons for low back pain. The knowledge of such type of variation is important for anatomists, orthopaedicians and neurosurgeons operating in this region.