Lumbar Spine Anatomy Report

DISCUSSION

Lumbar Spine Anatomy

The lumbar spine refers to the lower back, where the spine curves inward toward the abdomen. It starts about five or six inches below the shoulder blades, and connects with the thoracic spine at the top and extends downward to the sacral spine.

"Lumbar" is derived from the Latin word "lumbus," meaning lion, and the lumbar spine earns its name. It is built for both power and flexibility - lifting, twisting, and bending.

The lumbar spine has several distinguishing characteristics:

The lower the vertebra is in the spinal column, the more weight it must bear. The five vertebrae of the lumbar spine (L1-L5) are the biggest unfused vertebrae in the spinal column, enabling them to support the weight of the entire

While a muscle strain doesn’t sound like a serious injury, the resulting lower back pain can be surprisingly severe and is the cause of many emergency room visits each year.

There are two common types of lower back strain:

A muscle strain happens when the muscle is over-stretched or torn, resulting in damage to the muscle fibers (also called a pulled muscle).

A lumbar sprain happens when ligaments are stretched too far or torn. Ligaments are very tough, fibrous connecting tissues that connect bones together.

A lumba support should preserve natural spinal alignment, even in upright postures. Reclining postures help to maintain the natural curve of the spine by opening the angle between torso and thigh to attain pelvic alignment. The same effect can be achieved in upright postures by stabilizing the sacral-pelvic area of the back to sustain the forward pelvic tilt that promotes natural spinal curvatures and muscle balance.

What We Know

People are more likely to sit in upright or forward-leaning postures than to recline while working at the

But these solutions leave a void between the backrest and the sitter’s lower back. / See Figure 5 / This failure to provide evenly distributed support across the entire, contoured surface of the sacral-pelvic region leaves the base of the spine unsupported.

Design Solution

Adjustable, contoured fit lumba support for the sacral-pelvic region that provides a controlled forward pelvic tilt to restore spinal curvatures and muscle balance comfortably and naturally.

Designed as an optional addition to the seating technology was developed to provide sacral-pelvic support in cooperation with the inter-reliant tissues, structures, and contours of the human body.

Although the location of the lumbar spine varies greatly from person to person—as much as 4 inches or +/- 2 inches (Dowell, 1995)—there is little variation (+/- 5/8 inch) among the adult population in the height and width of the sacral-pelvic anatomy (Reynolds et al., 1982), / See Figure 6 / This allowed Walker to design a single-sized back support, shaped to fit the contours of the sacral-pelvic area, that could be added to the