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Nerve: Long thoracic nerve
Nerves of the left upper extremity. (Long thoracic labeled vertically at shoulder, to left of artery.)
The right brachial plexus with its short branches, viewed from in front. (Long thoracic labeled at center, third from top.)
Latin	nervus thoracicus longus
Gray's	subject #210 933
Innervates	serratus anterior muscle
From	brachial plexus (C5-C7)
To
MeSH	[1]

The long thoracic nerve (external respiratory nerve of Bell; posterior thoracic nerve) supplies the Serratus anterior.

It usually arises by three roots from the fifth, sixth, and seventh cervical nerves (C5-C7) but the root from C7 may be absent. The roots from C5 and C6 pierce the Scalenus medius, while the C7 root passes in front of the muscle.

The nerve descends behind the brachial plexus and the axillary vessels, resting on the outer surface of the Serratus anterior. It extends along the side of the thorax to the lower border of that muscle, supplying filaments to each of its digitations.

[edit] Damage

Due to its long, relatively superficial course, it is susceptible to injury either through direct trauma or stretch. Injury has been reported in almost all sports, typically occurring from a blow to the ribs underneath an outstretched arm. Surgically the long thoracic nerve can also be damaged during surgery for breast cancer, specifically radical mastectomies that involve removal of axillary lymph nodes.

Injuries to the nerve can result from carrying heavy bags over the shoulder for a prolonged time. There are also reports of isolated damage to this nerve as a variant of Parsonage Turner Syndrome, an autoimmune disease.

Symptoms are often minimal – if symptomatic, a posterior shoulder or scapular burning type of pain may be reported.

A lesion of the nerve paralyses the serratus anterior to produce scapula winging, which is most prominent when the arm is lifted forward or when the patient pushes the outstretched arm against a wall. However, even winging may not be evident until the trapezius stretches enough to reveal an injury several weeks prior.

[edit] Additional images

The right brachial plexus (infraclavicular portion) in the axillary fossa; viewed from below and in front.

Brachial plexus

[edit] External links

• Duke Orthopedics long_thoracic_nerve
• Who Named It synd/2384
• Dictionary at eMedicine long+thoracic+nerve
• SUNY Figs 05:03-07 - "The major subdivisions and terminal nerves of the brachial plexus."

This box: view • talk • edit Nerves of upper limbs (primarily): the brachial plexus

supraclavicular: dorsal scapular - suprascapular - to the subclavius - long thoracic infraclavicular: lateral cord: musculocutaneous (lateral cutaneous of forearm) - lateral pectoral - lateral head of median (anterior interosseous, palmar, common palmar digital, proper palmar digital) medial cord: medial pectoral - medial cutaneous of forearm - medial cutaneous of arm - ulnar (muscular branches, dorsal branch, palmar branch, superficial branch, deep branch) - medial head of median posterior cord: subscapular (upper, lower) - thoracodorsal - axillary (superior lateral cutaneous of arm) - radial (muscular, inferior lateral cutaneous of arm, posterior cutaneous of arm, posterior cutaneous of forearm, superficial branch, deep branch, posterior interosseous) cutaneous innervation of the upper limbs

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sv:Nervus thoracicus longus

This page uses content from the English-language version of Wikipedia. The original article was at Long thoracic nerve. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Psychology Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.