Kissing Spines

Kissing spines is more formally known as overriding (or impingement) of the dorsal spinous processes (ORDSP). It occurs when the dorsal spinous processes (the top blade of the vertebrae) are too close together rather than being spaced out with gaps in between them. This results in overlapping or touching of two or more of the dorsal spinous processes – hence “kissing” as the adjacent processes are very close.