Hello Everyone! Welcome back to another Friday blog. Today I want to take a close look at the longest and most complex of the 12 pairs of cranial nerves - the Vagus Nerve - CN X. In Latin, it means "wandering" and true to its name courses from the brainstem all the way down to the transverse mesocolon - sprouting branches and winding around to communicate with nearly every organ below the neck. "The vagus nerve functions as a multidimensional integrative system" with ~ 80% of the nerve fibers being afferent - sending information from the organs to the brain - while only 20% are efferent - information communicated from the brain to the organs. The right vagus is termed "nervus vagus dexter" while the left is "nervus vagus sinister." The nomenclature gives us a clue as to the different functions between the right and left as they exit the skull through the jugular foramen where they take completely separate journeys to accomplish the overall goals of this amazing cranial nerve. Let's delve in.
