Cutaneous innervation of the upper limbs

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Cutaneous innervation of the upper limbs is the nerve supply to areas of the skin of the upper limbs (including the arm, forearm, and hand) which are supplied by specific cutaneous nerves.

Modern texts are in agreement about which areas of the skin are served by which cutaneous nerves, but there are minor variations in some of the details. The borders designated by the diagrams in the 1918 edition of Gray's Anatomy, provided below, are similar but not identical to those generally accepted today.

Arm and shoulder

Supraclavicular nerves (yellow)
Axillary nerve (blue). Also Superior lateral cutaneous nerve of arm.
Inferior lateral cutaneous nerve of arm - Near blue "axillary" area, but actually branches from radial nerve. Most modern sources distinguish the superior and inferior, but some still include a single "lateral brachial cutaneous nerve". )
Intercostobrachial nerve (brown)
Medial cutaneous nerve of arm (yellow) - labeled as "medial brachial cutaneous".
Posterior cutaneous nerve of arm (pink) - not explicitly distinguished from that of Posterior cutaneous nerve of forearm on diagram, but is often distinguished in modern terminology

Forearm

Lateral cutaneous nerve of forearm (brown) - labeled as "lat. antebrach. cut.". Branch of musculocutaneous nerve.
Medial cutaneous nerve of forearm (green) - labeled as "medial antebrach. cutaneous". Branch of medial cord.
Posterior cutaneous nerve of forearm (pink) - labeled as "dorsal antebrach. cut." Branch of radial nerve.

Hand

Superficial branch of the radial nerve (pink) - dorsal digital branch
Median nerve (yellow)- palmar digital branch
Superficial branch of ulnar nerve (blue) - palmar digital branch

External links

Overview at luc.edu
Overview at neuroguide.com
Hand kinesiology at the University of Kansas Medical Center - arms
arteries-nerves%20UE/nerve7 at the Dartmouth Medical School's Department of Anatomy - arms

Nerve supply of the human arm

Supraclavicular

root (dorsal scapular, long thoracic)
upper trunk (suprascapular, to the subclavius)

Infraclavicular

lateral cord	lateral pectoral ansa pectoralis musculocutaneous (lateral cutaneous of forearm) median/lateral root: anterior interosseous palmar recurrent common palmar digital (proper palmar digital)
medial cord	medial pectoral ansa pectoralis cutaneous: medial cutaneous of forearm medial cutaneous of arm ulnar: muscular palmar dorsal (dorsal digital nerves) superficial (common palmar digital, proper palmar digital) deep median/medial root: see above
posterior cord	subscapular (upper, lower) thoracodorsal axillary (superior lateral cutaneous of arm) radial: muscular cutaneous (posterior of arm, inferior lateral of arm, posterior of forearm) superficial (dorsal digital nerves) deep (posterior interosseous)

Other

Brachial plexus

Category:

Nerves of the upper limb