Nerve fiber analysis on the so-called accessory subscapularis muscle and its morphological significance

A rare muscular anomaly, so-called accessory subscapularis muscle, was found in the left axillary fossa of a 95-year-old male cadaver during a student dissection practise. The muscle arose near the lateral margin of the scapula from the surface of the subscapularis muscle and ran upward to fuse with the capsule of the shoulder joint via a tendon. It measured 1.0 cm in width, 7.0 cm in length and 1.5 mm in thickness, and was separated from the underlying subscapularis muscle by the axillary and inferior subscapular nerves. Macroscopically, the anomalous muscle received its nerve supply from a branch arising from the lower root of the radial nerve near the origin of the thoracodorsal nerve and entered the muscle from its ventral surface. Nerve fiber analysis showed that the supplying nerve originated from fibers of the dorsal element of C7 immediately cranial to the thoracodorsal nerve. These findings indicate that the present anomalous muscle might be close to the formation of the latissimus dorsi muscle in its derivation rather than the subscapularis muscle.