Table 1.
Baseline characteristics such as donors’ age and gender are given and the extent to which the vagus nerve could be visualized in vertebral segments.
Fig 1.
Images taken during dissection of the cervical vagus nerve (CVN) in the carotid sheath.
Fig. 1a shows a left-sided CVN without branching and Fig. 1c-d CVN with branches on the left side (1b) or on the right side (1c,d). Arrows indicate the branches. C = (common or internal) carotid artery, J = internal jugular vein, O = superior venter of the omohyoideus muscle; cd = caudal, cr = cranial, m = medial, l = lateral; scale bar = 15 mm (a,b), 12 mm (c,d).
Fig 2.
Hematoxylin-eosin stained histology samples obtained from the vagus nerve (2a) and from a vagus nerve branch (2b) for evaluating the existence of nerve fibers.
A = arterial branch from the inferior thyroid artery, E = epineurium; scale bar = 500 μm.
Table 2.
Statistical comparison of vagus nerve diameters and cross-sections (mean value ± standard deviation).
Fig 3.
X-rays obtained from the cervical spine of a 69 year-old male in the anterior-posterior (3a) and in the lateral projection (3b).
Metal needles indicate the most cranial and caudal part of the vagus nerve that could be visualized with the surgical approach to the carotid triangle. d = dorsal, l = left, r = right, v = ventral; scale bar = 10 mm.