LKnative – Axillary nerve block

Indications

Postoperative analgesia after shoulder surgery in combination with a suprascapular nerve block as an alternative to interscalene brachial plexus block

Page 2:

Anatomy – anterior view

The axillary and radial nerves origin from the posterior cord of the brachial plexus

The axillary nerve contains nerve fibres from the ventral rami of the C5 and C6 spinal nerve roots

The axillary nerve branches off the posterior cord of the brachial plexus at the lower border of the subscapularis muscle and runs posteriorly through the “quadrangular space” bounded by the surgical neck of the humerus, the tendon of the triceps brachii (long head) muscle, the teres major muscle and the subscapularis muscle

The axillary nerve joins the posterior circumflex humeral artery and vein through the window of the quadrangular space (see next page)