Cutaneous innervation

Cutaneous innervation refers to the area of the skin which is supplied by a specific nerve, i.e. a cutaneous nerve.

The idea is similar to dermatomes. However, dermatomes only specify the area served by a spinal nerve. In some cases, the dermatome is less specific (when a spinal nerve is the source for more than one cutaneous nerve), and in other cases it is more specific (when a cutaneous nerve is derived from multiple spinal nerves.)

Modern texts are in agreement about which areas of the skin are served by which nerves, but there are minor variations in some of the details. The borders designated by the diagrams in the 1918 edition of Gray's Anatomy, provided below, are similar but not identical to those generally accepted today.