A warning against revival of the classic tenets of gross anatomy related to nerve-muscle specificity.

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

Who cites it

6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

1. The prevalence and distribution of sternalis muscle: a meta-analysis of published literature of the last two hundred years.Anatomical science international · 2022
   Pooled it
2. Neuromuscular anatomy of common fibular nerve with special focus on fibularis tertius muscle.Anatomical science international · 2026
   Article
3. When Muscle Lines Blur: An Unusual Fusion of Trapezius and Sternocleidomastoid With Surgical Relevance.Cureus · 2025
   Article
4. Comparative analysis of Hmx expression and the distribution of neuronal somata in the trigeminal ganglion in lamprey and shark: insights into the homology of the trigeminal nerve branches and the evolutionary origin of the vertebrate jaw.Zoological letters · 2023
   Article
5. Bilateral four heads of the sternocleidomastoid muscle.Surgical and radiologic anatomy : SRA · 2015
   Review
6. Does the nerve supply to both the superficial and deep surfaces of pectoralis major imply two separate developmental origins?Journal of anatomy · 1996
   Article

Corrections and comments

• Commented on by
  Nerve-muscle specificity.1997
• Comment on
  Innervation of the anteromedial muscle bundles of the gluteus medius.1993
• Comment on
  Case report: the cleidocervical muscle with speculation as to its origin.1994
• Comment on
  An unusually medial axillary arch muscle.1994

Authors and funding

1 author.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

Abstract

PubMed holds no abstract for this paper.

Indexed as