BLOOD SUPPLY OF THE NERVES OF THE UPPER LIMB IN MAN

Abstract

Investigations on the blood supply of peripheral nerves by Quénu and Lejars¹(1890, 1892), Bartholdy²(1897) and Tonkoff³(1898, 1907), toward the close of the last century, extended the rather limited observations previously made by Haller⁴(1756), Isenflamm and Doerffler⁵(1768), Bichat⁶(1830) and Hyrtl⁷(1859,1864) and culminated in the publication of a series of papers which made available a considerable body of accurate information on this subject. It is perhaps unfortunate that these reports appeared at a time when interest in the peripheral nervous system was dominated by the problems of degeneration and regeneration and by the behavior of the apparently more active elements of the nerve in those processes, namely, the axis-cylinder and its myelin and Schwann sheaths. As a result, any possible effect of the blood supply on axonal conduction, degeneration and repair failed to attract attention, though suggestions that