Question

You are in the emergency room when a patient is brought in, the loser in a street fight. He has received a stab wound about 1.5 cm long in the right side of the chest about 1.5 cm below and 1 cm medial to the coracoid process of the scapula. He has lost a lot of bright red blood from a large (approx. 1.2 cm in diameter) severed artery found deep at this location. Intravenous fluids are immediately administered and a surgeon is called in to repair the artery. He begins by making an incision through the skin and subcutaneous tissue just below the clavicle, then cuts the clavicular head of the pectoralis major muscle and retracts it downward to obtain sufficient exposure of the area. He next encounters a partially severed muscle running downward and medially from the coracoid process. He divides the remaining fibers of the muscle and has you retract it downward. This exposes a bloody fat-filled space full of vessels and nerves.

Which space or cavity was opened when the surgeon reflected the muscles?
A. axillary space
B. infraspinatous fossa
C. quadrangular space
D. subdeltoid bursa
E. triangular space

Answer 1

The axillary space is the region exposed by the surgeon when reflecting the muscles during the procedure to repair a severed artery. The option (A) is correct.

Step-by-step explanation:

The space or cavity opened by the surgeon when reflecting the muscles is the axillary space. The axillary artery and axillary vein are major blood vessels located in this region, and the axillary artery is a continuation of the subclavian artery.

It enters the axillary region and supplies blood to areas near the head of the humerus and the majority continues as the brachial artery. The axillary vein becomes the subclavian vein as it drains the upper limb and smaller veins near the scapula region. Therefore, option (A) is correct.