Joints

• Fibrous
• Cartilaginous
• Synovial
• Syndesmosis

Immovable; AKA synarthrosis joints; no joint cavity; example: skull

Slightly movable; AKA amphiarthrosis joints; no joint cavity; example: vertebral column

Freely moving joints; AKA diarthrosis joints; contains synovial fluid and joint cavity; most common in the body; example: fingers, knee, etc.

Unites the bones with a sheet of fibrous tissue, either a ligament or fibrous membrane; only 2 in the body (between the radius & ulna and the tibia & fibula)

• Plane
• Ball-and-socket
• Condyloid
• Saddle
• Hinge
• Pivot

Permit gliding or sliding movements; example: the acromioclavicular joint (AC joint)

Permit flexion and extension only; uniaxial; example: the elbow joint)

Allow rotation; uniaxial; a round process of bone fits into a bony ligamentous socket; example: the atlantoaxial joint between the atlas (C1) and the axis (C2)

Shaped like a saddle; they are concave and convex where the bones articulate; biaxial; example: the joint between the metacarpal and the trapezium

Permit flexion, extension, abduction, and adduction; biaxial; example: the metacarpophalangeal (knuckle) joints of the fingers

Permit movement in several axes (multiaxial); a rounded head fits into a concavity; example: the hip joint

A nerve that supplies a joint, supplies the muscles that move the joint and the skin that covers the attachments

Cartilage degeneration (prevalent in the knee); hyaline can't heal because it lacks a blood supply

Wearing down of bone at a weight-bearing joint (mostly the lower extremities); common in older people and usually affects joint that support their bodies (hips and knees)

Position and relation of body in space & time; we need to train proprioceptively; joints transmit this sensation which provides information and awareness of movement and position of the parts of the body