Accomplishments

Variant Nerve Supply Of The Long Head Of The Triceps Muscle – A Case Report


  • Details
  • Share
Category
Articles
Publisher
Ijacr
Publishing Date
01-Mar-2017
volume
4
Issue
3
Pages
165-168

During the routine dissection for the undergraduate first M.B.B.S. student, on the right upper limb of a 70 year old donated embalmed male cadaver in the department of Anatomy, K. J. Somaiya Medical College, Sion, Mumbai, India, we observed the axillary nerve giving the motor branch to the long head of the triceps muscle. The axillary nerve winds backward, in company with the posterior humeral circumflex artery, through a quadrilateral space bounded above by the teres minor, below by the teres major, medially by the long head of the triceps brachii, and laterally by the surgical neck of the humerus, and divides into an anterior and a posterior branch. The anterior branch (upper branch) winds around the surgical neck of the humerus, beneath the deltoid, with the posterior humeral circumflex vessels. It continues as far as the anterior border of the deltoid to provide motor innervations. The posterior branch (lower branch) supplies the teres minor ,the posterior part of the deltoid and the long head of the triceps muscle. The finding was noted after thorough and meticulous dissection of the upper limbs of both sides. The left side of the cadaver was normal and the long head of the triceps muscle was supplied by the radial nerve. There were no associated variations documented in the arterial pattern in the same cadaver. Photographs of the variation in the nerve supply of the long head of the triceps brachii muscle were taken for proper documentation and ready reference. The variation in the nerve supply of the long head of the triceps brachii muscle is clinically important for surgeons, orthopaedicians and anaesthetist performing pain management therapies on the upper limb. In the present case the motor branch of the long head of the triceps brachii muscle may arise from the axillary nerve hence while examining patients with traumatic injury involving the axillary nerve, it is important to look for the paralysis of the long head of the triceps brachii muscle. The paral