Serratus anterior muscle
muscle on the surface of the ribs
The serratus anterior, also known as serratus magnus, is a muscle of the chest. It originates at the side of the chest from the upper 9 ribs; it inserts along the entire length of the anterior aspect of the medial border of the scapula. It is innervated by the long thoracic nerve from the brachial plexus. The serratus anterior acts to pull the scapula forward around the thorax.
The muscle is named from Latin: serrare = to saw (referring to the shape); and anterior = on the front side of the body.
Structure
Origin
Serratus anterior typically originates by ten muscle slips – arising from the 1st to 9th ribs; because two slips arise from the 2nd rib, the number of slips is greater than the number of ribs from which they originate.
Insertion
The muscle is inserted along the medial border of the scapula between the superior and inferior angle of the scapula.
The muscle is divided into three parts according to the points of insertion:
the serratus anterior superior is inserted near the superior angle;
the serratus anterior intermediate is inserted along the medial border;
the serratus anterior inferior is inserted near the inferior angle.
Innervation
The serratus anterior is innervated by the long thoracic nerve, a branch of the brachial plexus. The long thoracic nerve travels inferiorly on the surface of the serratus anterior muscle.
“Serratus anterior muscle” enters the record as muscle on the surface of the ribs. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Serratus, anterior and muscle can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Serratus anterior muscle” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.