Medial border of the scapula

Study entry

Description

Thin border, parallel to the thoracic spinous processes, about 5 cm from them ("vertebral border").

Relations

Insertion of the rhomboids; the serratus anterior attaches to its anterior surface.

Source: cap. 3, «Huesos del miembro superior: escápula»

Clinical correlation

Injury to the long thoracic nerve: winged scapula

With the serratus anterior paralyzed, the medial border of the scapula moves away from the chest wall, outward and backward, like a wing, above all when the person pushes against a wall. On raising the arm, the medial border and the inferior angle jump off the thorax (winged scapula), and the arm may not get past the horizontal, because the glenoid cavity is not rotated upward. The nerve runs on the superficial surface of the serratus itself: protected with the arm by the side, it is exposed with the arm raised (stabbing), in gunshot wounds to the chest and in mastectomy.

Related clinical cases

• Injury to the long thoracic nerve: winged scapula

Other structures in this region

• Conoid tubercle
• Trapezoid line
• Scapular notch
• Glenoid cavity
• Supraglenoid tubercle
• Infraglenoid tubercle
• Subscapular fossa
• Supraspinous fossa