Cervical plexus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Nerve: Cervical plexus | ||
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| The right sympathetic chain and its connections with the thoracic, abdominal, and pelvic plexuses. (Label for cervical plexus at upper left, near neck.) | ||
| Plan of the cervical plexus. | ||
| Latin | plexus cervicalis | |
| Gray's | subject #210 925 | |
| Dorlands/Elsevier | p_24/12647686 | |
The cervical plexus is a plexus of the ventral rami of the first four cervical spinal nerves which are located from C1 to C4 cervical segment in the neck. They are located laterally to the transverse processes between prevertebral muscles from the medial side and vertebral (m.scalenus, m.levator scapulae, m.splenius cervicis) from lateral side. Here there is anastomosis with accessory nerve, hypoglossal nerve and sympathetic trunk.
It is located in the neck, deep to sternocleidomastoid. Nerves formed from the cervical plexus innervate the back of the head, as well as some neck muscles.
[edit] Branches
Has three types of branches: cutaneous, muscular, and mixed.
- Cutaneous (4 branches):
- Lesser occipital nerve - innervates lateral part of occipital region (C2,C3)
- Greater auricular nerve - innervates skin near concha auricle and external acoustic meatus (C2&C3)
- Transverse cervical nerve - innervates anterior region of neck (C2&C3)
- Supraclavicular nerves - innervate region of suprascapularis,shoulder, and upper thoracic region (C3,C4)
- Muscular
- ansa cervicalis, etc.
- Mixed
[edit] Additional images
Cervical plexus |
[edit] External links
- Anatomy at MUN nerve/cerplex
- SUNY Figs 25:03-02 - "Diagram of the cervical plexus"
- Dictionary at eMedicine Cervical+plexus
- Diagram at msu.edu
 | This neuroscience article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
| Cervical plexus | |
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superficial: (lesser occipital - greater auricular - transverse cervical - supraclavicular) - deep: (ansa cervicalis - phrenic) | |
