Suboccipital nerve - Misplaced Pages

Nerve of the head

Suboccipital nerve
Median sagittal section through the occipital bone and first three cervical vertebrae. (Suboccipital nerve labeled at center right.)
Details
Innervates	Rectus capitis posterior major, rectus capitis posterior minor, obliquus capitis superior, obliquus capitis inferior
Identifiers
Latin	nervus suboccipitalis
TA98	A14.2.02.007
TA2	6365
FMA	7054
Anatomical terms of neuroanatomy[edit on Wikidata]

Not to be confused with Lesser occipital nerve.

The suboccipital nerve (first cervical dorsal ramus) is the dorsal primary ramus of the first cervical nerve (C1). It exits the spinal cord between the skull and the first cervical vertebra, the atlas.

It lies within the suboccipital triangle along with the vertebral artery, where the artery enters the foramen magnum.

Additional images

Upper part of medulla spinalis and hind- and mid-brains; posterior aspect, exposed in situ.
Suboccipital triangle

Standring, Susan (2016). Gray's anatomy: the anatomical basis of clinical practice (41 ed.). Elsevier Limited. pp. 762–773. ISBN 978-0-7020-5230-9.

v t e Spinal nerves
Cervical	C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 anterior Cervical plexus Brachial plexus posterior Posterior branches of cervical nerves Suboccipital – C1 Greater occipital – C2 Third occipital – C3
Thoracic	T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 T7 T8 T9 T10 T11 T12 anterior Intercostal Intercostobrachial – T2 Thoraco-abdominal nerves – T7–T11 Subcostal – T12 posterior Posterior branches of thoracic nerves
Lumbar	L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 anterior Lumbar plexus Lumbosacral trunk posterior Posterior branches of the lumbar nerves Superior cluneal L1–L3
Sacral	S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 anterior Sacral plexus posterior Posterior branches of sacral nerves Medial cluneal nerves
Coccygeal	anterior Coccygeal plexus posterior Posterior branch of coccygeal nerve

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