Anatomy study note · Upper limb
Humerus
The long bone of the arm. Its head articulates with the glenoid cavity at the shoulder; its lower end, with the radius and ulna at the elbow.
Key points
- Surgical neck → axillary nerve + posterior circumflex humeral artery.
- Spiral groove (mid-shaft) → radial nerve + profunda brachii.
- Behind the medial epicondyle → ulnar nerve.
- Supracondylar fracture (child) → brachial artery → Volkmann contracture.
- Bicipital groove holds the long head of biceps; capitulum → radius, trochlea → ulna.
- Shaft: primary centre; ends: secondary centres; growth at the epiphyseal plate.
- Limb bones: limb-bud mesenchyme, endochondral (except clavicle).
- Long bone: endochondral ossification; epiphyseal plate closes ~20 y.
- Bone: type I collagen + hydroxyapatite.
The full note in the atlas also covers
Relations · Features · Histology · Development · Clinical notes
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Written from
- Snell’s Clinical Anatomy by Regions, 10th ed., ch. 3, PDF pp. 225–230
- Inderbir Singh’s Human Embryology, ch. 7, PDF pp. 98, 102–104; ch. 10, PDF pp. 141, 145
- BRS Cell Biology & Histology, 7th ed., ch. 7, PDF pp. 121–125, 126–129, 130
More from the upper limb
- Hypothenar muscles
- Infraspinatus
- Intercarpal and carpometacarpal joints
- Interossei of the hand
- Latissimus dorsi
- Levator scapulae
- Long thoracic nerve
- Lumbricals of the hand
- Medial cutaneous nerves of arm and forearm
- Median cubital vein
- Median nerve
- Metacarpal bones
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