J Korean Soc Microsurg.  2012 Nov;21(2):149-152.

Anatomic Study of the Vessels of the Digital Nerves in the Fingers

• Lee JC
• Choi HJ
• Kim JH
• Lee YM
• Nam DH

Abstract

PURPOSE
The vessels of peripheral nerves have been extensively studied since Breidenbach used vascularizd nerve grafts. Tayor and Pinel studied the course and distribution of the vessels of peripheral nerves. However, the vessels of digital nerves are still not well known. The objective of this study was to prove vessels of digital nerves and to investigate the pathway of that.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
36 patients and 2 fresh human cadavers were studied under the microscope and histologic sections under the light microscope.
RESULTS
We found that digital nerves had own arterioles and venules as well as peripheral nerves. This small vessels of digital nerves paralleled the digital nerves or run in a spiral. Digital nerves were abundantly vascularized throught their length by a succession of vessels and by their repeated divisions and anastomoses.
CONCLUSIONS
The clinical implications of this results can be discussed in relation to the dissection of nerves, the possibility of vasculized nerve grafts.

Keyword

Vessels of digital nerve; Dissection of digital nerve; Nerve graft

MeSH Terms

Arterioles
Cadaver
Fingers
Humans
Light
Peripheral Nerves
Transplants
Venules