Dissectible Me 5 minute anatomy

Somatic nervous system

"Soma" means "of the body" so what is the somatic nervous system? How is this dividing up of the nervous system useful? I'll try to describe this neuroanatomy concept in 5 minutes.

Ovarian and uterine artery anastomosis

The ovarian artery branches from the aorta and supplies blood to the ovary. The uterine artery branches from the internal iliac artery and supplies blood to the uterus. But they link, and in doing so provide a collateral circulation route between the abdominal aorta and pelvic internal iliac artery. Let's discuss.

Trendelenburg Sign

What is the anatomy behind Trendelenburg gait? Why does the hip drop? Which hip drops? Which side is the weakness on? What might cause this? I'll try to describe this clearly in 5 minutes.

Major motor nerves of the lower limb

A common request is for me to summarise the nerves of the lower limb and how they innervate the muscles. If we think about the parts of the lower limb (thigh, leg and foot) and their compartments we can link each nerve to each compartment and then easily remember every nerve that innervates every muscle. Well, that's the theory.
 

Aortic dissection

An aortic dissection occurs when the innermost layer of the aorta tears and blood pushes into the walls of the aorta, separating the layers and causing some very dangerous problems. Let's talk through this process and think about the anatomy that might also be affected.

Anatomical snuff box

The anatomical snuff box describes a clinically useful surface anatomy landmark on the back of the thumb at the wrist, outlined by a triangular set of tendons. In here we find the scaphoid bone and some other structures. I'll try to describe what you can find here on yourself.

Small intestine

There is so much that we could talk about when looking at the anatomy of the small intestine, but if I only had 5 minutes what would I choose as the most important ideas?

Axilla

The axilla is the armpit, and an anatomical space linking the torso with the upper limb. Let's define its borders so we better understand where it is and then we can talk briefly about the structures that we find passing through or residing in there. 

Hyoid bone

The anatomy of this slender U-shaped bone in the neck at the top of the larynx is crucial to the normal functions of the larynx and swallowing, but why?

Parasympathetic nervous system

Squeezing in a little more detail about the parasympathetic nervous system I can talk about all of the cranial nerves that carry parasympathetic neurones, brainstem nuclei, the parasympathetic ganglia of the head and the functions of this division of the nervous system in about 5 minutes.