Medial brachial fascial compartment syndrome: anatomic basis of neuropathy after transaxillary arteriography

Abstract

The authors reviewed their experience with 320 transaxillary arteriograms, as well as the English-language literature on neuropathy complicating transaxillary arteriography. Three of their patients had median and ulnar motor and sensory nerve injury, and six others had only sensory involvement. The occurrence or severity of nerve injury did not correlate well with the size or presence of an observable axillary or arm hematoma. Dissection of the axillae and arms of 25 human cadavers revealed a tough medial brachial fascial compartment (MBFC) outside a thin axillary sheath. The median and ulnar nerves were within the MBFC at an arterial puncture site just lateral to the anterior axillary fold. The radial and musculocutaneous nerves exited the MBFC more proximally. The different levels at which the major nerves of the brachial plexus exit the MBFC explain the anatomic distribution of the nerve injuries associated with compression by a hematoma after transaxillary arteriography.