Anatom3DLong thoracic nerve
Nervus thoracicus longus · Dlouhý hrudní nerv
Nervous system
Looks like
A long nerve from C5–C7 running down the side of the chest wall on the serratus anterior muscle.
What it does
Moves serratus anterior, which holds the shoulder blade against the ribs.
Keeping it well
Injury (armpit surgery, heavy bags, viral neuritis) causes a 'winged' shoulder blade when pushing against a wall.
Related conditions
- Amyloidosis (AL and ATTR)
- Botulism
- Chickenpox (varicella)
- Chronic neuropathic pain
- Chronic pain syndrome
- Fibromyalgia
- Frozen shoulder (adhesive capsulitis)
- Guillain-Barré syndrome
- Lyme disease
- Myasthenia gravis
- Peripheral neuropathy
- Polymyalgia rheumatica
- Rabies
- Restless legs syndrome
- Shingles (herpes zoster)
- Shoulder dislocation
- Tetanus
- Thoracic outlet syndrome
- Vitamin B1, C and other deficiencies