Spinal root origins and innervations of the suprascapular nerve

The suprascapular nerve branches provide efferent innervation to the supraspinatus and infraspinatus muscles as well as sensory innervation to the shoulder joint. This study was carried out to verify the spinal root origins and innervations of the suprascapular nerve. Fifty samples of the suprascapular nerve taken from 37 adult Korean cadavers were used in this study. The suprascapular nerve was found to comprise the ventral rami of the C5 and C6 in 76.0% of the fifty samples; C4, C5, and C6 nerves in 18.0%; and C5 nerve in only 6.0%. The C5 nerve was consistently shown to be the largest in mean diameter and was found to be a major contributor of nerve fibers leading to the suprascapular nerve. This study shows that the main spinal component of the suprascapular nerve is C5 nerve. In most cases, the rate of the involvement of the C4 and C6 nerves (18.0 and 94.0%, respectively) with the suprascapular nerve was less than that of C5 nerve. C4 and C5 nerves were shown to contribute nerve fibers to the supraspinatus and infraspinatus muscles and to both shoulder joints, whereas C6 nerve displayed variable patterns of innervation.