[Anatomic study of intramuscular nerve and blood vessel in forearm muscles: an anatomical study].
OBJECTIVE
To study the distribution of intramuscular nerve and blood vessels in forearm muscles and to discuss the possibility of dividing the forearm muscles into independent functional units.


METHODS
(1) The muscles were dissected in 10 forearms from 5 fresh adult human cadavers and stained with the Sihler's nerve staining; (2) The blood vessels were studied in eight forearm muscles from 4 fresh adult human cadavers with irrigation of a mixture of 30% barium sulfate and gelatin from brachial artery and then X-photographed. All pictures were compared to study the intramuscular distribution of nerve and blood vessels.


RESULTS
The intramuscular nerve branches were stained purple-black and visualized clearly. The muscles were classified into three types according to the distribution characters of intramuscular nerve and blood vessels. And the types of muscles could be further subdivided into a and b subtypes.


CONCLUSIONS
According to the neurovascular distribution, the forearm muscles in type II a and type III a can be divided into independent function units for muscle functional transplantation.
Chen
Gang
G
Department of Plastic Surgery, Changzheng Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200003, China. doc_chen@163.com
Jiang
Hua
H
Lin
Zi-Hao
ZH
Liu
An-Tang
AT
Dang
Rui-Shan
RS
Shen
Hui
H
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005542:Forearm / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000294:innervation*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000294:innervation*; D055815:Young Adult