Got a major dose of reality this morning. Our pathology lecturer informed us today that "Neurology, more so than perhaps any other area of medicine, revolves around the anatomy of the system for classification of clinical syndromes." Or something earth-shattering like that. It's time for me to study Neuro anyway, so I thought, "What the hell? - I'll start with neuroanatomy."Neuroanatomy on a Monday morning is rather like a shot of tequila on an empty stomach. It seems like a good idea at the time. "What's one shot of tequila?"/"What's a little neuroanatomy?" Lol.
Fortunately, tequila goes quite well with salty & greasy food - and SO DOES NEUROANATOMY. It is amazing how much better something gets when combined with chips and aioli!
Anyway I got through the spinal cord today. The embryology is quite easy. Step 1: a patch of ectoderm forms the neural groove. Step 2: A group of cells migrates to form the neural crest cells. Step 3: The neural groove is "zippered" up to form the neural tube, starting in the middle and moving rostrally and caudally. Step 4: The neural tube cells form the alar plate (sensory neurons ... i.e. the dorsal columns & dorsal horns) and the basal plate (motor neurons ... i.e the ventral horns and the corticospinal tracts).
My mnemonic for layers a needle would pass through during an LP is SLEDS Along Snow:
S - skin & superficial fascia
L - ligaments
E - epidural space
D - dura
S - subdural space
Along - arachnoid
Snow - subarachnoid space (from which the CSF is extracted)
--KM <3
