Overview of Upper Limb Anatomy: Clinical Relevance

Aarij Elahi


Anatomy – Upper Limb
The upper limb is a vital part of human anatomy and has many clinical relevance’s which
may help junior doctors. The upper limb is divided into shoulder, arm, forearm, and hand.
To obtain a good understanding, it’s important to divide the limb into its muscle
compartments and review the nerves and blood vessels involved.
Shoulder:
The shoulder girdle is composed of the following:
- Clavicle (collar bone)
- Scapula (shoulder blade)
- Humerus
The joints involved include:
- Sternoclavicular joint
- Acromioclavicular joint
- Glenohumeral joint (ball-and-socket): stabilised by the rotator cuff muscles
The diagram below highlights the bones involved in the shoulder joint:




Figure 1 Bones of the shoulder (From John Hansen, Netter's Clinical Anatomy, 4th Edition (Philadelphia: Elsevier, 2019),
page 369.)

, Aarij Elahi


The muscles of the shoulder are shown in the following diagrams. The rotator cuff muscles
help stabilise the joint, and consist of supraspinatus, infraspinatus, subscapularis, and teres
minor. Other muscles involved in the shoulder joint include superficial back muscles,
deltoid, superficial pectoral muscles, and the teres major muscle (1).




Figure 2 Posterior view of the muscles of the shoulder (From John Hansen, Netter's Clinical Anatomy, 4th Edition
(Philadelphia: Elsevier, 2019), page 375.)




Figure
3 Anterior view of the muscles of the shoulder (From John Hansen, Netter's Clinical Anatomy, 4th Edition (Philadelphia:
Elsevier, 2019), page 375.)