ACCESSORY ARTICULAR PROCESSES OF THE LUMBAR VERTEBRAE

In these days of traumatic injuries and subsequent legal entanglements it is of considerable importance for the surgeon and roentgenologist to know about possible anomalies of the skeletal system and to be able to distinguish them from supposed fractures. Improved roentgenographic technic allows one to visualize a given bone with much more detail than was possible in the not too distant past. Hence it is a natural tendency to diagnose a demonstrated separation of continuity in a bone as a fracture if the history of an accident makes such a diagnosis plausible. This applies especially to alleged fractures of processes of the vertebrae. For technical and anatomic reasons the articular processes of the vertebrae are difficult to demonstrate. It is here that misinterpretation may not infrequently be met with and discussions arise as to whether an abnormal condition is present and, if so, whether the abnormality represents a traumatic or