Anatomy, Skin, Dermatomes

skin is divided anatomically into distinct patterns based on the specific distribution of sensory nerve fibers arising from a single spinal nerve. These patterns were mapped and discussed most prominently in 1933 by O. Foerster in a publication entitled “The Dermatomes in Man” in the journal Brain, which some consider the founding basis on which dermatomal theory rests. After Foerster, J. Keegan and F. Garrett discussed the distribution of spinal nerves in 1948 in their publication The Segmental Distribution of the Cutaneous Nerves in the Limbs of Man” in the journal Anatomical Record. Most recently, in 2008, M. Lee, R. McPhee, and M. Stringer published an article in Clinical Anatomy entitled “An Evidence-Based Approach to Human Dermatomes,” in which they contested some of the classic presentations of dermatome maps and put forth an evidence-based method for determining a more accurate map of human dermatomes.