Quick Facts
Origin: Anterior gastric branch of the anterior vagal trunk.
Course: Passes along the anterior surface of the body of the stomach along the lesser curvature.
Branches: Several unnamed branches.
Supply: Mixed nerve. Visceral sensory: conveys sensation from the anterior stomach along the lesser curvature. Parasympathetic: innervates smooth muscle and secretory cells of the anterior aspect of stomach.
Related parts of the anatomy
Origin
The anterior nerve of the lesser curvature is the main branch of the anterior gastric branches of the anterior vagal trunk. It contains visceral afferent fibers that originate in several layers of the stomach and parasympathetic efferent fibers originating in the posterior nucleus of the vagus nerve (dorsal motor nucleus or dorsal vagal nucleus) within the medulla oblongata (Ratcliffe, Farrar and Fox, 2011).
Course
The anterior nerve of the lesser curvature runs along the anterior surface of the lesser curvature of the stomach. It terminates in the region of the anterior pylorus, forming a crow’s foot like nerve structure.
Branches
The anterior nerve of the lesser curvature is often considered an unbranched terminal nerve. However, several gastric branches can arise directly from this nerve.
Supplied Structures
The anterior nerve of the lesser curvature is a mixed nerve that conveys both visceral sensory fibers and parasympathetic efferent fibers. The visceral sensory afferents convey information from the stomach along the lesser curvature down to the angular incisure and proximal pylorus. The parasympathetic efferent fibers innervate the smooth muscle of the anterior body of the stomach along the lesser curvature down to the angular incisure and proximal pylorus, and secretory cells in the mucosa underlying the same region (Paxinos, 2012).
List of Clinical Correlates
—Gastric dysfunction resulting from loss of vagal input to the GI system
References
Paxinos, G. (2012) The Human Nervous System. Elsevier Science.
Ratcliffe, E. M., Farrar, N. R. and Fox, E. A. (2011) 'Development of the vagal innervation of the gut: steering the wandering nerve', Neurogastroenterology and motility : the official journal of the European Gastrointestinal Motility Society, 23(10), pp. 898-911.
