What is the brachial plexus?

What is the brachial plexus?

The brachial plexus consists of five nerves that branch off from your spinal cord at your neck and conduct signals from your spinal cord to your shoulder, arm and hand. You have a brachial plexus on each side of your body.

In the medical world, a plexus is a bundle of intersecting nerves, blood vessels or lymphatic vessels in the human body. “Brachial” means “relating to the arm or to a structure resembling the arm” (The brachial artery, for example, is the main vessel supplying blood to the muscles in your upper arm and elbow joint). Thus, the brachial plexus is a bundle of nerves that run from your spinal cord down into your arm.

The plexus connects these five nerves with the nerves that provide sensation to your skin and allow movement in the muscles of your arm and hand.

Each of the five nerves in the brachial plexus has a specific function, such as stimulating muscles or carrying sensory information, such as temperature and touch, from your hand to your brain.

Because each nerve has a different function, the location of the nerve injury and the type of nerve injury within the plexus determines the symptoms you experience and the type of treatment you may need.