Posted: 02/07/06 - 01:00 Post subject: Thoracic Nerve
I hurt my Thoracic Nerve while playing basketball. Ever since then I am thinking about the humananatomy. I would appreciate if someone could tell me more about the thoracic nerve.
I understand why you are interested in knowing all of that. I will give you an anatomic explanation. The innervation of the thorax is somatic for the body wall and autonomic for the viscera. The somatic nerves are the twelve thoracic spinal nerves and the phrenic and the autonomic nerves are the fibres from the sympathetic chain, and the vagus nerve. The vagus nerves enter the thorax at the thoracic inlet and in the neck the nerves lie in the carotid sheath between the internal jugular vein and the common carotid artery. The right vagus enters the thorax behind the internal jugular vein and anterior to the subclavian artery. The phrenic nerve arises in the neck from C3, 4, 5 roots and it lies on the scalenus anterior muscle and enters the thorax between the subclavian artery and the subclavian vein. The nerve then courses down the mediastinum lying anterior to the hilum of the lung, and squeezed between the pleura and the pericardium. Without further confusing you with these medical terms, I hope that I was clear enough.
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