AN IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL STUDY OF PALMAR AND PLANTAR DIGITAL NERVES

We present a qualitative and semi-quantitative description of palmar a nd plantar digital nerves obtained from cadavers prepared for routine class dissection. The fingertips of the three most functionally import ant and sensitive digits, namely thumb, index and middle fingers, rece ived more myelinate axons than those of the ring and little fingers. I n both palmar and plantar nerves the numbers of myelin basic protein ( MBP)-positive myelinated axons decreased proximodistally along each di git and also from thumb to little finger and hallux to little toe resp ectively. Our results suggest that there are up to ten times more myel inated axons in palmar digital nerves than in plantar nerves.