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Hur, Woo, Kim, and Lee: Frequency and Quantity of the C7 Contribution to the Ulnar Nerve
Original Article

Korean J Phys Anthropol 2013;26(3):101-104.

Published online: 20 March 2013

DOI: https://doi.org/10.11637/kjpa.2013.26.3.101

Frequency and Quantity of the C7 Contribution to the Ulnar Nerve

Mi-Sun Hur, Jung-Su Woo, Ho-Jeong Kim, Kyu-Seok Lee

Department of Anatomy, Kwandong University College of Medicine

Correspondence to: Kyu-Seok Lee (Department of Anatomy, Kwan-dong University College of Medicine) E-mail: kslee@kwandong.ac.kr

The author(s) declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

∗ This work was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education and Technology(2009–0071338). The author(s) agree to abide by the good publication practice guideline for medical journals.

Received 16 August 2013       Revised 16 September 2013       Accepted 30 September 2013

Copyright © 2013 Korean Association of Physical Anthropologists

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Many anatomists and clinicians who investigate the peripheral nerve concern about the composition of the spinal roots of each terminal nerve of the brachial plexus. From this viewpoint, the spinal root composition of the ulnar nerve is still unclear. Several anatomy textbooks describe that the ulnar nerve is composed of the ventral rami of the C8, T1 and often C7. There is no literature regarding the frequency and contribution quantity of C7 to the ulnar nerve. The purpose of present study was to determine frequency and contribution quantity of the C7 to the ulnar nerve. Fifty cadavers of brachial plexus were obtained from cadavers of Korean adults. The brachial plexus containing the ulnar nerve were extracted from the axilla and the extracted samples were immersed in Guanidine-HCl(0.2M) for 2 weeks to soften the connective tissue around the nerve bundles. C7 was contributed to the ulnar nerve in all sides(100%). The numbers of the myelinated axons of C7 participating to the ulnar nerve was 1,452±429(mean ±S.D.). Thus the C7 can be considered as always participating component of the ulnar nerve, not often partici-pation, although numbers of the myelinated axons of C7 was lesser than those of the C8, but similar to those of the T1. The results of the study provide a reference for accurate diagnosis and treatment regarding ulnar nerve injury due to various accidents.

Keywords: C7, Frequency, Quantity, Ulnar nerve

References

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Fig. 1.
A photograph showing the C7 fascicles(arrow) constituting the ulnar nerve in the posterior aspect of the brachial plexus. C7 fasci-cles constituting the ulnar nerve branched out at the distal portion of the lateral cord. AN, axillary nerve, Lat C, lateral cord; MAN, medial antebrachial cutaneous nerve; MBN, medial brachial cutaneous nerve; MCN, musculocutaneous nerve; MDN, median nerve; Med C, medial cord; Post C, posterior cord; RN, radial nerve; UN, ulnar nerve.
kjpa-26-101f1.tif
Table 1.
Numbers of myelinated axons of C7, C8 and T1 roots participating to the ulnar nerve.
  C7 C8 T1
Number of 1,452±429 11,448±1,473 1,720±382
myelinated axons (9.9%) (78.3%) (11.8%)
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