Sensitive nerve receptors beneath the extensor apparatus of the hand fingers

In this paper we describe the finding of nervous receptors in the histologic layers beneath the extensor apparatus of the human fingers. Forty-eight fresh finger blocks of human corpses were processed and histological sections were stained with toluidine blue, hematoxylin-eosin, Masson's trichrome and silver staining for reticular fibres. These techniques showed the diverse kind of cells and tissues of the different layers previously described in another paper, and known as the extensor subtendinous digital aponeurosis and preperiosteal dorsal phalangeal fasciæ. We observed collagen fibres in the extensor apparatus and reticular fibres through all of these layers as well as typical fatty cells. Peripheral nerves and nervous receptors, like pacinian corpuscles, were found in the preperiosteal dorsal phalangeal fasciæ.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]