Accessory Branch Of Median Nerve: An Anatomical Variation In The Innervation Of Brachialis Muscle With Its Clinical Implications

ABSTRACT

The median nerve (MN) is widely known among Anatomists to innervate the forearm. It usually gives out a branchto the Pronator Teres muscle as it enters the arm, while the muscles of the anterior compartment of the arm aremajorly innervated by the musculocutaneous nerve (MCN). An accessory branch of MN was noticed in the leftarm during student’s dissection of a male cadaver to innervate the lower part of the Brachialis muscle (BM). Thebranch was given out at the infero-lateral side of the nerve and it coursed lateral to the lateral brachial vein andafter small distance it disappeared into the Brachialis muscle to supply it. It is in view of the above that we areadvocating that surgeons, neurologists and anaesthists should also be conscious of these variations and bemeticulous in their efforts to interpret some of the symptoms induced by nerve lesion. This branch could be vitalin reduce Brachialis muscle palsy in event of damage to MCN.