A 19-year-old fell from a cliff when he was hiking in the mountains. He broke his fall by grasping a tree branch, but he suffered injury to the C8-T1 spinal nerve roots. Sensory tests would thereafter confirm the nature of his neurologic injury by the sensory loss in the part of the limb supplied by which of the following?
In a lesion of the lower trunk, or the C8 and T1 nerve roots, there is sensory loss on the medial forearm and the medial side of hand (dorsal and ventral). The medial cord is the extension of the lower trunk. The medial cord gives origin to the medial antebrachial cutaneous nerve, which supplies the T1 dermatome of the medial side of the antebrachium. The lower lateral brachial cutaneous nerve arises from the radial nerve, C5 and C6. The musculocutaneous nerve arises from the lateral cord, ending in the lateral antebrachial cutaneous nerve, with C5 and C6 dermatome fibers. The intercostobrachial nerve is the lateral cutaneous branch of the T2 ventral primary ramus and supplies skin on the medial side of the arm. The median nerve distributes C6 and C7 sensory fibers to the lateral part of the palm, thumb, index, long finger, and half of the ring finger.
Lower lateral brachial cutaneous nerve
Musculocutaneous nerve
Intercostobrachial nerve
Medial antebrachial cutaneous nerve
Upper Extremity