Brachial plexus

Anood Alassaf :’) faculty of medicine … A second year victim

We’ll be talking about: Spinal

cord and spinal nerves

Brachial plexus

And why should I care?

1.It can be your worst nightmares unless you follow up your lectures a day by day

2.Doctors love to ask a bout it in the exams

3.Medical important … you’ll know it by yourself

Vertebral column:

33 vertebrae

26 bone

5 of them fuse to make the sacrum

= considered 1 bone 4 fuse to form the coccyx = considered 1 bone

Base of the brain

Between L1 and L2

Divided into 31 segmentAt each segmentFrom each sides there is a spinal

nerve

31 segments• 8 cervical• 12 thoracic• 5 lumbar• 5 sacral• 1 coccygeal

In the thoracic part:Each spinal nerve arises from its corresponding segment below the corresponding vertebra

Here it’s different

Then each spinal nerve divides into:Anterior ramus and posterior ramus

Brachial plexusIs a network of nerve

fibers (anterior rami) running from the spinal cord, formed by the lower four cervical and first thoracic (C5 T1 )

Proceeds through the neck, axilla, into the arm

Gives off many nerves that

supply the shoulder, chest, and arms

division

s

trunks

c5

c6

c7

c8

T1

posteriorsuperior

middle

inferior

anterior

posterior

posterior

anterior

anterior

lateral

posterior

medial

M rootstrunksdivisionscordsTerminal branches

Lateral cord:Musculocutaneous nerve (1)Lateral root of median nerve (2)Lateral pectoral nerve (3)

MLL

13

2

Medial cord:Ulnar nerve (4)Medial root of median nerve (5)Medial pectoral nerve (6)Medial cutaneous nerve of the arm(7)Medial cutaneous nerve of the forearm(8)UMMMM

45

678Posterior cord:Upper subscapular nerve (9)Lower subscapular nerve (10)Middle subscapular nerve = Nerve to latissimus dorsi = thoraco dorsal (11)Axillary nerve (12)Radial nerve (13)ULMAR

91011

12

13