had an artery cut into in arm blood puled onto nerve what are the signs of damag!

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

Hello,

I'm not quite certain whether you had a deep wound or cut to the front of your elbow, - or whether you had it injured whilst a doctor was taking a blood sample?

If we are talking about the front of your elbow, I think you mean the "Brachial artery," (pronounced BRAY'' - kee - ul. Here is a good diagram, (click) http://patientsites.com/media/img/1078/e…

Normally the brachial artery is quite deep inside, under the skin, but sometimes people have it closer to the surface, where it can be mistaken for a vein. When a doctor takes blood from the front of the elbow, normally he should check first that there is no pulse in it! (i.e. it is a vein, not an artery), but this is not always remembered.

If you happen to have a brachial artery that lies close to the surface, you need to *know* this, I recommend you get your doctor to check both fronts-of-elbows for where your brachial artery is, and *tell* you and show you.

The nerve I think you are talking about is called the "Median nerve," pronounced MEE'' - dee - un, you can see in this pic that it lies close to the brachial artery at the front of the elbow, (click) http://www.healcentral.org/thumbnails/rc…

If your median nerve is damaged, you get loss of sensation in this part of the hand... (the blue area) (click) http://www.netterimages.com/image/896.ht…

... And you lose most of the muscle power in the front of your forearm and hand. So you cannot curl your hand up into a fist.

The doctor should check you for damage to the median nerve, - he may have done so already, and not told you because it was ok.

If we are *not* talking about the front of your elbow, but further down the forearm, you need to tell me exactly where and I will revise my answer. I mean, the answer will be different.

I hope this is of some help.

Best wishes,

Belliger
retired uk gp