Median Nerve - Injury

Injury

Injury of median nerve at different levels cause different syndromes:

Above the elbow

  • Injury of this nerve at a level above the elbow results in loss of pronation and a reduction in flexion of the hand at the wrist.

At the elbow

  • Severing the median nerve at this level or higher (at above the elbow) causes "the Blessed Hand," or "Hand of Benediction."
  • Entrapment at the level of the elbow or the proximal forearm could be due to the pronator teres syndrome.
  • Lesions of compression of the Median Nerve can also leads to Median Nerve Palsy

Within the forearm

  • Injury to the anterior interosseous branch in the forearm causes the anterior interosseous syndrome.

At the wrist

  • Injury by compression at the carpal tunnel causes carpal tunnel syndrome.
  • In the hand, thenar muscles are paralyzed and will atrophy over time.
  • Opposition and flexion of the thumb are lost.
  • Sensory is lost:
Palm - 3 1/2 Fingers
Dorsal - Finger tips
  • The thumb and index finger are arrested in adduction and hyperextension. This appearance of the hand is collectively referred as 'ape hand deformity'.

Read more about this topic:  Median Nerve

Famous quotes containing the word injury:

    “A great proportion of architectural ornaments are literally hollow, and a September gale would strip them off, like borrowed plumes, without injury to the substantials.... What if an equal ado were made about the ornaments of style in literature, and the architects of our bibles spent as much time about their cornices as the architects of our churches do? So are made the belles-lettres and the beaux-arts and their professors.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “Men have come to speak of the revelation as somewhat long ago given and done, as if God were dead. The injury to faith throttles the preacher; and the goodliest of institutions becomes an uncertain and inarticulate voice.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “Men have come to speak of the revelation as somewhat long ago given and done, as if God were dead. The injury to faith throttles the preacher; and the goodliest of institutions becomes an uncertain and inarticulate voice.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)