Suprascapular nerve

The suprascapular nerve ( " upper scapular nerve" ) is a nerve of the brachial plexus. It has its roots in the human spinal cord between the 5th and 6th cervical segment (C5 - C6) in pets at C6 - C7. He pulls the top ( in animals: anterior ) shoulder blade edge and the scapular notch on the outside of the shoulder blade.

Innervation

The suprascapular nerve provides motor innervation:

• Supraspinatus
• Musculus infraspinatus

Supraskapularislähmung

Man

Paralysis of the suprascapular nerve (also: suprascapular nerve - compression syndrome) occurs occasionally in humans before, carrying heavy loads on the shoulder, or the notch - scapula syndrome. Due to the failure of the muscles innervated by the suprascapular nerve ( supraspinatus and / or infraspinatus ), the risk of dislocation of the humeral head increased significantly (failure of the rotator cuff ).

Pets

In animals, Supraskapularislähmung is one of the more common nerve palsies. Since the nerve on the front shoulder edge of the sheet and thus a hard bone edge is, it can be easily damaged on impact in this region. In cattle, this occurs especially when inserting the insistence in a feed fence. For animal species that do not have the acromion (eg horse), the nerve is also on the shoulder blade outside at risk of injury ( or knock on the lateral shoulder, lying on the side ).

The innervated by the suprascapular nerve muscles in animals a large role in the lateral stabilization of the shoulder joint, as with the exception of predators, no sidebands are formed and the two muscles take over the function of the lateral collateral ligament. In case of failure of these muscles thus lead to a lateral deviation of the shoulder joint ( " Abblatten ").

A longer-lasting nerve paralysis eventually leads to atrophy of the muscles ( muscle wasting ), whereby the shoulder ( scapular spine ) strikingly emerges and in front and behind the two, usually filled by these muscles scapula pits are visible as indentations ( fossa supra-and infra pinata ). If only a portion of the nerve is damaged, only one of the two pits to light.

Supraskapularblock

An anesthetic block of the nerve at the scapular notch is sometimes performed in the treatment of pain in humans.