For Providers -- Atlas of Human Anatomy

The second cervical vertebra, axis, seen from the front.

Translated by: Ronald A. Bergman, PhD and Adel K. Afifi, MD, MS
Peer Review Status: Internally Peer Reviewed

a) Body of the axis.
b) Odontoin process.
c) Neck of the odontoid process.
d) Fovea for dentis atlantis.
e) Apex of the odontoid process.
f) Superior oblique process (it forms, with the atlas, a rotation joint).
g) Inferior oblique process.
h) Transverse process, with the vertebral foramen or vertebral canal for the vertebral canal.