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Innervation of the Psoas Major Muscle
Author(s) -
Sanders Luke,
Guan Jian,
Morton David,
Mahan Mark
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.29.1_supplement.703.3
Subject(s) - anatomy , cadaver , psoas muscles , denervation , lumbar , femoral nerve , medicine , lumbar vertebrae
The specific innervation of the psoas major muscle (PMM) fluctuates among anatomy reference materials. Descriptions include a variety of arrangements of the L1‐L5 ventral rami, which is expected from a muscle possessing multiple segmental attachments. However, this lack of specificity may result in denervation of the PMM during a transpsoas surgical approach to the lumbar vertebrae. In order to better understand the PMM's segmental innervation we examined 30 embalmed cadavers and documented the segmental innervation of the psoas major muscle from the ventral rami of lumbar 1 through 5. The largest branch from the ventral rami arose from L3 in the majority of cadavers. The femoral nerve provided one branch to the psoas in the majority of cases, providing an additional branch from lumbar 3 and 4. The branches to the psoas passed obliquely through the muscle in an anterolateral direction, and crossed the intervertebral disk in all specimens. Knowledge of the branch pattern and spinal levels supplying the psoas major may aid surgeons prevent denervation of the psoas during transpsoas approaches to the lumbar spine.