noun

• Each of the eleventh pair of cranial nerves, supplying certain muscles in the neck and shoulder.

  ‘The spinal accessory nerve and its musculature.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘This area, too, is an area through which a massive tangle of facial nerves (including the hypoglossal and accessory nerves) exit the skull to fan out across the face.’
  • ‘From its beginning at the 5th cervical segment, the spinal root of the accessory nerve increases in thickness as fibers join it from higher segments.’
  • ‘The accessory nerve may also arise from L2, L3 and L4; L2, L3; or L3; or it may arise from the obturator nerve.’
  • ‘This preserves function, especially in relation to the accessory nerve, which if sacrificed usually gives rise to a stiff and painful shoulder.’
  • ‘‘Functional’ neck dissections, modified to preserve the jugular, sternomastoid, or accessory nerve while ensuring complete removal of involved nodes, have gained popularity.’
  • ‘Vagal and accessory nerve palsy have been reported and may be due to a toxic neuritis rather than from compression.’
  • ‘His spinal accessory nerve was mistakenly severed during surgery to remove a cyst on his neck.’
  • ‘Excisional biopsy has few complications, such as vessel injury and the rare spinal accessory nerve injury.’