Innervation of the Pelvic Limb of the Adult Ostrich (Struthio camelus)

Abstract

The pelvic limb of the ostrich is innervated by the lumbar and sacral plexuses. The lumbar plexus gave rise to several nerves (N.s) including, N. coxalis cranialis, lateral and cranial femoral cutaneous N.s, N. femoralis, cranial, caudal and medial crural cutaneous N.s, and N. obturatorius. The remaining nerves emanated from the sacral plexus. The N. iliotibial, N. ischiofemoralis, N. iliofibularis, and N. coxae caudalis were distributed in the thigh, while the N. ischiadica, which terminated as the tibial and fibular N.s that innervated the leg and foot. The tibial N. gave rise to the parafibular N. then divided to form the Nn. suralis medialis and lateralis. The N. suralis medialis continued as the N. metatarsalis plantaris medialis. The parafibular N. continued as the N. plantaris lateralis, which terminated as the R. digitalis of the fourth digit. The fibular N. terminated as the superficial and deep fibular N.s. The superficial fibular N. continued as the N. metatarsalis dorsalis lateralis and divided into two digital N.s to the third and fourth digits. The deep fibular N. crossed the ankle joint and continued as the N. metatarsalis dorsalis medialis that continued as the R. digitalis of the third digit. In general, the innervation of the pelvic limb of the ostrich was similar to the pelvic limbs of several different species of domesticated birds, including the chicken. We discuss the few differences as well as appropriate sites to perform nerve blocks for the lateral and medial dorsal and the lateral plantar N.s.

Macroanatomical aspects of the sacral plexus and its branches in sparrowhawk

“…Moreover, we found that nervus peroneus profundus is the thickest branch among the last branches of nervus peroneus in the hawk. In contrast to previous reports (Fitzgerald 1969;Nickel et al 1977;Dursun 2002;Istanbullugil 2008;Bentley & Poole 2009;El-Mahdy et al 2010) after passing through retinaculum extensorium tibiotarsi, it forms the lateral and medial bifurcation. This finding is similar to Baumel et al' s (1993) opinion, which indicated that neurovascular bundles may form a bifurcation under the tendon of musculus tibialis cranialis when passing through retinaculum.…”

“…In the current study, contrary to El-Mahdy et al' s (2010) findings, we found that three trunks form plexus sacralis in the hawk, which is consistent with the most of the previous studies (Serbest et al 1993;Istanbullugil 2008;Istanbullugil et al 2010;Can 2011;Balkaya & Ozudogru 2013). El-Mahdy et al (2010) in the ostrich and Istanbullugil (2008) in the white turkey showed that nervus ischiofemoralis innervating musculus ischiofemoralis originates from truncus cranialis although it was shown to originate from nervus ischiadicus in chicken by Serbest et al (1993). In these studies, however, nervus ischiofemoralis was not found.…”

“…El-Mahdy et al (2010) found only two trunks forming plexus sacralis in the ostrich. In the current study, contrary to El-Mahdy et al' s (2010) findings, we found that three trunks form plexus sacralis in the hawk, which is consistent with the most of the previous studies (Serbest et al 1993;Istanbullugil 2008;Istanbullugil et al 2010;Can 2011;Balkaya & Ozudogru 2013).…”

“…Again, Serbest (2000) reported five or six synsacral spinal nerves in turkey and five nerves in goose contributed to the plexus sacralis formation. Other studies showed that plexus sacralis originates from four roots in the Japan quail (Bentley & Poole 2009;Can 2011), five roots in the rock partridge (Can 2011), in the pheasant (Istanbullugil et al 2010) and in the pigeon (Balkaya & Ozudogru 2013), seven roots in the ostrich (El-Mahdy et al 2010). Similar to the findings of previous studies (Nickel et al 1977;Dursun 2002;Istanbullugil 2008) and Serbest's (2000) study, that reports that plexus sacralis originates sometimes from six roots in the turkey, we found that plexus sacralis in the hawk originates from six nerve roots.…”

“…El-Mahdy et al (2010) reported that after giving muscular branches at the proximal part of the leg, nervus peroneus goes towards the lateral compartment of the leg until the middle and splits into nervus peroneus profundus and nervus peroneus superficialis. In the hawk, this nerve gives peroneal muscular branches as mentioned by El-Mahdy et al (2010) and then travels as one root in the same sheath at the lateral side of the leg until it reaches the middle of ossa cruris and here, splits into nervus peroneus superficialis and nervus peroneus profundus. Our observation is not similar to the findings of some other researchers (Nickel et al 1977;Dursun 2002).…”