this one's kind of a fun one it's the
kata equina or you could say equino
whichever way you want to say it
but we call it the the her of the
horse's tail
now start at the top with me the ponzi
medulla no seriously
i want you to literally take your finger
and follow
down with me engage your brain because i
don't want to lose you in this part so
sometimes it's hard to keep focused when
we're going through
so much cool information but you've got
the ponzin medulla
then you've got the foramen magnum that
hole in your skull
now you can see as we keep moving down
you've got like spinal cord and the pia
mater we've got like right at
level t1 and c2 you see where those guys
are
and we've laid the dura out there for
you t12
conus modularis the phylum terminale
and then the kata equina it literally
means a horse's tail
and if you look at it there that's what
it resembles
the horse's tail so
why is the spinal cord shorter than the
vertebral column
hey that's a pretty interesting question
first of all did you realize that
did you know that your vertebral column
the bone
is longer than your actual spinal cord
it is
it ends at the lower of either the first
lumbar or the top of the second
lumbar vertebra so why would you do that
well it does protect your spinal cord
but let me tell you how it happens
during normal growth and development a
human being's vertebral column
outgrows the spinal cord that way we can
keep it protected
so we don't find the spinal cord
starting from the lower lumbar region
where the lumbar puncture is done
why is that beneficial well we do lumbar
punctures
where we do because the spinal cord
isn't there
so we don't risk damage okay so we're
going to look
even more at the spinal cord you see
we've got it labeled for you there
and it's situated inside the vertebral
canal right so it's protected by those
spinal meninges
that tough bone it's usually about
42 to 45 centimeters or 16 to 18 inches
and it's about two centimeters or
just a little bit over three quarters of
an inch around
now it starts from the medulla oblongata
or a friend in the brain stem
and it ends at the just like we talked
about at the
top or the bottom of the first lumbar or
the top
of the second lumbar okay so we're
helping you see kind of what do we know
about this spinal cord how big is it
how long is it where does it start and
where does it
end so again make sure you've paused the
video
take a look at this and see without
looking at your notes can you remember
how long how big where it starts and
where it ends
all right you're doing great you already
know so much about the spinal cord
that's going to help you as a nurse
now let's talk about how you protect the
spinal cord because it's the information
highway
if anything damages it we're going to
have big problems controlling our bodies
so first of all you've got that bone in
meninges right those are the
the bone is what you're used to seeing
and then the meninges are those tight
protective layers
now remember i've got meninges in my
brain right
the pia mater arachnoid endura those are
those
tough layers that protect my brain if i
get
meningitis that's an inflammation of the
meninges
so first of all i've got bone that's
tough structure that will protect that
spinal cord
then i've got the meninges same kind of
thing that i have in my brain
i have around the spinal cord and i've
got a cushion of fat
now this is the kind of fat you want to
have
because it helps cushion that spinal
cord i've got fat
and a network of veins in the epidural
space remember the
epidural space same kind of area as when
we talk about the epidural space
in your brain between the vertebra and
the spinal dura mater
okay so epidural is referring to the
dura mater the dura mater we've got that
vertebra
break in between because what's
cushioning that
the fat and the network of veins in that
epidural space is helping
to protect the spinal cord now we've
also got
cerebral spinal fluid in the
subarachnoid space
let's take the words and translate them
to the drawing okay
so you see there that um we have the
bones do you see how that's pointed up
looks like a w
on top of an upside down v
now take a look where we have the pia
mater we don't have the arachnoid mater
labeled here for you but remember when
we talk about
padding your brain if we were looking in
your head it would be
p a d pia mater
arachnoid mater dura mater now remember
they're not that wide i was just being
using hyperbole to let you see with the
order that they go in
but we've got the pia mater there so we
see where the vertebral bodies are
that's the bones
that's the w on top of the v that's what
makes that as a bonus protection
then we've got the pia mater there you
see the spinal cord
and you see the white matter and the
gray matter that you're already familiar
with
and there you see that little coating of
fat that we have in the epidural space
cool now you see the dura mater and the
subarachnoid space we've actually
labeled for you there also just remember
we don't show you the arachnoid space in
this one okay so
let's go back over to the words you've
got bone and meninges
see those there that's like the pia
mater dura mater
we've got a cushion of fat and a network
of veins and you see where that is in
the drawing
and lastly we have the cerebral spinal
fluid in the subarachnoid space
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you