Roger Allen

Vasomotor Innervation Fields Of Peripheral Nerves Supplying The Hand: Differences Between Neurovascular And Somatosensory Patterns

This studys purpose was to thermographically investigate the innervation fields of peripheral nerves to arteries of the hand and compare these neurovascular patterns to established somatosensory patterns. Seventeen normal adult volunteers received peripheral nerve blocks to the radial, median, and ulnar nerves. Palmar and dorsal thermo-graphic images of the hand were taken to identify regions of hyperemia, revealing the vasomotor innervation field for each peripheral nerve. Peripheral nerve vascular innervation patterns displayed marked similarity to somatosensory patterns, with the notable exception that the radial nerve does not appear to innervate vessels of the hand. The vascular innervation field of the ulnar nerve in the hand appears identical to its somatosensory field, whereas, innervation to the remainder of the hands vasculature seems solely supplied by the median nerve. These findings may help identify neurovascular etiologies of some nontraditional symptom patterns, which may have been previously diagnosed as having no organic cause.