Dorsal scapular nerve
Nervus dorsalis scapulae
Definition
The Dorsal Scapular Nerve (n. dorsalis scapulæ; nerve to the Rhomboidei; posterior scapular nerve) arises from the fifth cervical, pierces the Scalenus medius, passes beneath the Levator scapulæ, to which it occasionally gives a twig, and ends in the Rhomboidei.
It is accompanied by one of two arteries: either the dorsal scapular artery (the only artery that comes off the third part of the subclavian, although its origin is highly variable in different people) or, when the dorsal scapular artery is absent, the deep branch of the transverse cervical artery (an artery coming off the thyrocervical trunk, a branch of the first part of the subclavian artery, the other two branches being vertebral artery and internal thoracic artery).
References
This definition incorporates text from a public domain edition of Gray's Anatomy (20th U.S. edition of Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body, published in 1918 – from http://www.bartleby.com/107/).
