Medial cutaneous nerve of arm

Nerve: Medial cutaneous nerve of arm
Diagram of segmental distribution of the cutaneous nerves of the right upper extremity. Anterior view. "Medial Brachial Cutan. T1-T2" labeled near center, in yellow.
Cutaneous nerves of right upper extremity.
Latin	n. cutaneus brachii medialis
Gray's	subject #210 937
From	T1 (medial cord)

The medial brachial cutaneous nerve (lesser internal cutaneous nerve; medial cutaneous nerve of arm) is distributed to the skin on the medial brachial side of the arm.

Anatomy

It is the smallest branch of the brachial plexus, and arising from the medial cord receives its fibers from the eighth cervical and first thoracic nerves. It passes through the axilla, at first lying behind, and then medial to the axillary vein, and communicates with the intercostobrachial nerve.

It descends along the medial side of the brachial artery to the middle of the arm, where it pierces the deep fascia, and is distributed to the skin of the back of the lower third of the arm, extending as far as the elbow, where some filaments are lost in the skin in front of the medial epicondyle, and others over the olecranon.

It communicates with the ulnar branch of the medial antebrachial cutaneous nerve.

Eponym

The term "nerve of Wrisberg" (after Heinrich August Wrisberg) has been used to describe this nerve.^[1][2]

However, the term "nerve of Wrisberg" can also refer to the nervus intermedius branch of the facial nerve.^[3][4][5]

See also

• Superior lateral cutaneous nerve of arm
• Inferior lateral cutaneous nerve of arm
• Posterior cutaneous nerve of arm

References

1. ^ Birmingham A (October 1895). "Nerve of Wrisberg". J Anat Physiol 30 (Pt 1): 63–9. PMC 1327743. PMID 17232174. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1327743. 
2. ^ "The Anterior Divisions - Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body - Yahoo! Education". http://education.yahoo.com/reference/gray/subjects/subject/210#p937. Retrieved 2008-11-26. 
3. ^ "eMedicine - Facial Nerve Anatomy : Article by Alpen A Patel". http://www.emedicine.com/ent/TOPIC8.HTM. 
4. ^ Fortuna A, La Torre E, Forni C (1972). "The cisternal segment of the nevus intermedius of Wrisberg: an anatomical study under the operating microscope". Acta Neurochir (Wien) 27 (1): 53–62. doi:10.1007/BF01402173. PMID 4540545. 
5. ^ Masdeu, Joseph C.; Brazis, Paul W. (2007). Localization in clinical neurology. Hagerstwon, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. p. 288. ISBN 0-7817-9952-X. 

Additional images

• 

  Brachial plexus

• 

  Brachial plexus with courses of spinal nerves shown

External links

• SUNY Figs 06:03-04
• EatonHand ner-017
• Hand kinesiology at UK nerves/medialcutan.htm

This article was originally based on an entry from a public domain edition of Gray's Anatomy. As such, some of the information contained within it may be outdated.