Distribution of the motor nerve supply of the thenar and hypothenar muscles of the hand

ABSTRACT

The distribution of the muscular branch of the median nerve to the thenar muscles and the deep branch of the ulnar nerve to the hypothenar muscles was studied in 30 palmar regions from adult cadavers of both sexes ranging from 40 to 70 years. The patterns of the distribution of the motor branch of the median nerve were classified into three groups according to the site, direction and number of individual branches. In ten of the 30 hands, a correlation was found between the ulnar and median nerves. The deep branch of the ulnar nerve gave three motor branches to the hypothenar muscles and its end usually supplied the deep head of the flexor pollicis brevis