Superior cardiac nerve

Superior cardiac nerve
Superior cardiac nerve
	Diagram of the cervical sympathetic. (Superior cardiac nerve labeled at center right.)
Details
From	superior cervical ganglion
Innervates	heart
Identifiers
Latin	nervus cardiacus cervicalis superior
	Anatomical terms of neuroanatomy [edit on Wikidata]

The superior cardiac nerve arises by two or more branches from the

recurrent nerve

. The course of the nerves on the two sides then differs.

Right nerve

The right nerve, at the root of the neck, passes either in front of or behind the

brachiocephalic trunk to the back of the arch of the aorta, where it joins the deep part of the cardiac plexus

It is connected with other branches of the sympathetic; about the middle of the neck it receives filaments from the

vagus; and as it enters the thorax it is joined by a filament from the recurrent laryngeal nerve

The left nerve, in the thorax, runs in front of the left common carotid artery and across the left side of the aortic arch, to the superficial part of the cardiac plexus.

This article incorporates text in the public domain from page 979 of the 20th edition of Gray's Anatomy (1918)