Master Dermatomes - Cervical with Picmonic for Physician Assistant

With Picmonic, facts become pictures. We've taken what the science shows - image mnemonics work - but we've boosted the effectiveness by building and associating memorable characters, interesting audio stories, and built-in quizzing.

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The skin's surface is divided into specific areas called dermatomes, which are mainly supplied by a single spinal nerve. There are 8 cervical nerves (C1 being an exception with no dermatome), 12 thoracic nerves, 5 lumbar nerves and 5 sacral nerves. Each of these nerves relays sensation (and pain) from a particular region of skin to the brain.

7 KEY FACTS

Cervical spinal nerve 2 (C2) innervates the skin of the posterior skull displaying a posterior "cap" distribution.

C3, the third cervical spinal nerve, innervates the skin to have sensation in a "high turtleneck" pattern around the neck.

Cervical nerve 4 (C4), innervates the skin near the neck in a "low collar shirt" distribution. Its control of the thoracic diaphragm has inspired a medical mnemonic: "Cut C4, breathe no more."

The cervical spinal nerve 5 (C5) is responsible for innervating the anterolateral shoulder skin and sensation pathways.

The cervical spinal nerve 6 (C6) is responsible for sensation and skin innervation of the thumb and posterolateral arm.

C7 innervates skin and sensation of the posterior arm to the middle and pointer fingers.

The C8 nerve receives sensory afferents from the C8 dermatome. This consists of all the skin on the little finger, and continuing up slightly past the wrist on the palmar and dorsal aspects of the hand and forearm. Clinically, a test of the pad of the little finger is often used to assess C8 integrity.

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