Recurrent branch of the median nerve
| Recurrent branch of the median nerve | |
|---|---|
 Superficial palmar nerves. (Recurrent branch labeled at center left as "Muscular to abductor, opponens, and flexor brevis pollicis.") | |
| Details | |
| From | median nerve |
| Anatomical terms of neuroanatomy | |
The recurrent branch of the median nerve is the branch of the median nerve which supplies the thenar muscles.[1] It is also occasionally referred to as the thenar branch, or the thenar muscular branch, of the median nerve. In the thenar eminence it provides motor innervation to:
- opponens pollicis,
- abductor pollicis brevis, and
- superficial part of flexor pollicis brevis.
An earlier branch of the median nerve also supplies the lumbricals 1 & 2. All other intrinsic muscles of the hand receive their motor innervation from branches of the ulnar nerve.
It usually passes distal to the transverse carpal ligament.[2]
It ends in the opponens pollicis.[3]
References
- ^ Median nerve
- ^ Kozin SH (1998). "The anatomy of the recurrent branch of the median nerve". J Hand Surg [Am]. 23 (5): 852–8. doi:10.1016/S0363-5023(98)80162-7. PMID 9763261.
- ^ Ellis, Harold; Susan Standring; Gray, Henry David (2005). Gray's anatomy: the anatomical basis of clinical practice. St. Louis, Mo: Elsevier Churchill Livingstone. p. 728. ISBN 0-443-07168-3.
External links
- lesson5nervesofhand at The Anatomy Lesson by Wesley Norman (Georgetown University)