Anatomy study note · Thorax

Intercostal nerves

The anterior rami of the first 11 thoracic spinal nerves. They supply the thoracic wall, and the lower ones (7–11) continue into the anterior abdominal wall. The 12th is the subcostal nerve.

Key points

• Anterior rami T1–T11; T12 = subcostal nerve.
• Run in the costal groove: VAN, nerve lowest.
• 1–6 thoracic wall; 7–11 also abdominal wall + peritoneum.
• T2 → intercostobrachial (cardiac pain to the medial arm).
• Shingles = dermatomal pain then rash.
• Ventral root: basal-lamina neurons. Dorsal root: neural-crest ganglion cells.
• Schwann cells: neural crest.
• Dorsal root ganglion: pseudounipolar neurons, no synapses.
• Nerve: epineurium → perineurium (blood–nerve barrier) → endoneurium.

The full note in the atlas also covers

Course · Branches · Histology · Development · Clinical notes

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Written from

• Snell’s Clinical Anatomy by Regions, 10th ed., ch. 4, PDF pp. 504–510
• Inderbir Singh’s Human Embryology, ch. 17, PDF pp. 318, 321, 323–325; ch. 10, PDF p. 136; ch. 14, PDF p. 223
• BRS Cell Biology & Histology, 7th ed., ch. 9, PDF pp. 163–166, 166, 171–172

More from the thorax

• Internal thoracic artery
• Internal thoracic vein
• Interventricular septum
• Joints of the ribs
• Left atrium
• Left coronary artery
• Left ventricle
• Levatores costarum
• Lung
• Lymph nodes of the thoracic wall
• Main and lobar bronchi
• Mediastinal and tracheobronchial lymph nodes

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