A long gestation: spine anatomy from the medieval age to the end of the 19th century. An analytical historical review.

Abstract

The discovery of spine anatomy followed a problem/solution pattern; it took almost 1000 years to transition from nihilism to perfectionism. Before the 16th century, the main issue was accessing and opening the spine. The level of knowledge progressed rapidly when the spinal canal was opened longitudinally during the 16th century. The 17th century was an incubation period that allowed the consolidation of the science of anatomy with the help of art, philosophy, and other sciences. In particular, the conservation of the cadaver was improved. Famous spine anatomists were close to Rembrandt, master of the chiaroscuro technique, which helped to improve the anatomical drawings significantly. Descriptions of the pathological anatomy of the spine were first published early in the 17th century, but progress was slow up to the end of the 18th century due to a lack of occasions for clinical-pathological correlations. Normal anatomy became remarkably accurate in the 18th and 19th centuries when soft tissues and connections (e.g., among the intervertebral discs) were studied in detail. The slow compressions due to underlying diseases and then the degenerative processes were subsequently described.