A 16-year-old disgruntled with failure attempts suicide by cutting her wrist. A superficial cut was noted on the wrist. All of the following structures have been damaged, EXCEPT:

A 16-year-old girl failed in her final examination. Disgusted with her life, she cut across the front of her wrist at the flexor retinaculum. She was rushed to the hospital. The surgeon noticed that the cut was superficial. All the following structures would have been damaged, EXCEPT:

A. Ulnar Nerve
B. Median Nerve
C. Palmar cutaneous branch of median nerve
D. Superficial branch of radial nerve

Answer is B: Median Nerve.

The median nerve lies deep to the flexor retinaculum. Except for the median nerve, all other options are superficial structures that could easily have been injured.

To be more precise, here is a list of structures in relation to the flexor retinaculum.

Structures passing superficial to flexor retinaculum

• Ulnar vessels
• Ulnar nerve
• Palmar cutaneous branch of ulnar nerve
• Palmar cutaneous branch of median nerve
• Tendon of Palmaris longus

Structures passing deep to flexor retinaculum

• Median nerve
• Ulnar bursa
• Radial bursa
• Tendons of flexor digitorum superficialis, flexor digitorum profundus, flexor pollicis longus, and flexor carpi radialis.