Health Dictionary
Reliable, easy-to-read patient information on common medical conditions — written in plain language, free of jargon, and grounded in current evidence. Browse the most frequent diagnoses, understand what they mean for everyday life, and learn which steps and questions help you have a focused conversation with your doctor.
Cutaneous innervation of the upper limbs
Introduction
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Cutaneous innervation refers to the area of the skin which is supplied by a specific nerve.
Modern texts are in agreement about which areas of the skin are served by which 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
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 (purple)
- 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
Forearm
- Lateral cutaneous nerve of forearm (purple) – labeled as “lat. antibrach. cut.”. Branch of musculocutaneous nerve.
- Medial cutaneous nerve of forearm (green) – labeled as “medial antibrach. cutaneous”. Branch of medial cord.
- Posterior cutaneous nerve of forearm (pink) – labeled as “dorsal antibrach. cut.” Branch of radial nerve.
Hand
Hand
- Superficial branch of the radial nerve (yellow)
- Median nerve (pink)
- Superficial branch of ulnar nerve (blue)
External links
External links
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]