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The Peripheral Nervous System: Anatomy and Function

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Peripheral Nerve Injuries: A Clinical Guide

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Abstract

The nervous system is the mechanism through which the organism is kept in touch with its internal structures and external environments and reacts to changes in them. The central nervous system – the brain and its caudal prolongation the spinal cord – is connected to the periphery by the peripheral nervous system. The latter includes the cranial nerves, the spinal nerves with their roots and rami, the peripheral nerves and the peripheral components of the autonomic nervous system, the sympathetic, parasympathetic and enteric divisions [16]. The peripheral nerves contain motor fibres (to end plates in skeletal muscle), sensory fibres (from organs and endings in skin, muscle, tendon, periosteum, and bone and joint), efferent autonomic fibres (to blood vessels, sweat glands and arrectores pilarum muscle), and visceral afferent fibres. In no other system is so much functional and relay capacity concentrated in so small a volume of tissue. The cervical spinal cord, with a width of about 2 cm and a depth of about 1.5 cm, contains all the apparatus transmitting control of somatic function from the neck down, together with that of control of much visceral function. Because of their greater content of connective tissue, the peripheral nerves have proportionately a lesser functional content, yet severance in an adult’s arm of the median nerve of 5 mm diameter effectively ruins the function of the hand and forearm.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neurological Orthopaedic Surgery, University College, London, UK

    Rolfe Birch MChir. FRCP&S (Glas) FRCS (Edin) FRCS Eng (by election) (Professor)

  2. Department of Academic Neurology, Imperial College, London, UK

    Rolfe Birch MChir. FRCP&S (Glas) FRCS (Edin) FRCS Eng (by election) (Visiting Professor)

  3. Department Peripheral Nerve Injury Unit, Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, London, UK

    Rolfe Birch MChir. FRCP&S (Glas) FRCS (Edin) FRCS Eng (by election) (Late Head)

  4. Honorary Orthopaedic Surgeon to the Royal, Navy, UK

    Rolfe Birch MChir. FRCP&S (Glas) FRCS (Edin) FRCS Eng (by election) (Professor)

  5. War Nerve Injury Clinic, Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre, Headley Court, Leatherhead, Surrey, UK

    Rolfe Birch MChir. FRCP&S (Glas) FRCS (Edin) FRCS Eng (by election) (Consultant in Charge)

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  1. Rolfe Birch MChir. FRCP&S (Glas) FRCS (Edin) FRCS Eng (by election)
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Birch, R., Birch, R., Birch, R., Birch, R. (2013). The Peripheral Nervous System: Anatomy and Function. In: Peripheral Nerve Injuries: A Clinical Guide. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4613-1_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4613-1_1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-4612-4

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