Surgical neck of the humerus

Surgical neck of the humerus
Left humerus. Anterior view. (Surgical neck labeled at upper left.)
Latin	collum chirurgicum humeri
Gray's	subject #51 209

The surgical neck of the humerus is a constriction below the tubercles of the greater tubercle and lesser tubercle.

It is much more frequently fractured than the anatomical neck of the humerus. A fracture in this area is most likely to cause damage to the axillary nerve. Damage to the axillary nerve would affect function of the teres minor muscle and deltoid muscle, resulting in loss of abduction of arm (from 15-90 degrees), weak flexion, extension, and rotation of shoulder. Paralysis of deltoid & teres minor results in Flat shoulder deformity and loss of sensation of the skin over a small part of the lateral upper arm.

See also

• Quadrangular space

External links

• Anatomy at PSU skel/humerusup2
• ii/s/surgical_neck_of_humerus article at GE's Medcyclopaedia
• radiographsul at The Anatomy Lesson by Wesley Norman (Georgetown University) (xrayleftshoulder)

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 As such, some of the information contained within it may be outdated.