A myotome is the muscle(s) that correlates to a spinal segment. For example, your biceps are your C5 myotome. Or is it C6? I forget, anyway the nerves that come out of the 5th segment of your spine control the biceps. So if you present with weakness in your biceps this well tell your super smart therapist that there is something wrong with your 5th cervical spinal segment in the neck. This is the case for every muscle in the body. To learn these for the upper body, in PT school we all did what was referred to as “the myotome dance.” Starting at the shoulders down to the wrists there is a little dance that we performed, and with each motion we would name the spinal segment that it correlates to. Here it is….
Raise the shoulders (C2-4 myotome)
Lift the arms out to the side (C5 myotome)
Bend the elbows(C5,6 myotome)
Straighten the elbow (C7 myotome)
Bend the wrist (C7 myotome)
Pull the wrist back (C6 myotome)
Bend fingers (T1 myotome)
I might have that wrong, I haven’t done the myotome dance in a few years.
This has nothing to do with a stroke. If you had a stroke, all of your myotomes are f’d up. Well, at least all myotomes on one side.
Film needed, I’m sure we could find some camera operators.
Haha! That would be funny, I’m gonna do that!