Nerves · Nervous System · Medium

Suprascapular

Meaning: A nerve from the upper trunk of the brachial plexus supplying the supraspinatus and infraspinatus muscles.

In practice: Wasting above and below the scapular spine pointed to suprascapular nerve compression.

Word parts

Many medical words are built from Greek and Latin parts like these, so learning a few helps you work out new terms.

Two questions on related nerves words.

Which word means: The long projections of nerve cells that carry electrical impulses away from the cell body.

Which word means: Nodes of Ranvier — gaps in the myelin sheath that speed up nerve impulse conduction.

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