Teres Minor Under the Skin, Gross Anatomy

Description

Over the posterior male shoulder girdle, the teres minor is presented as a narrow rotator cuff muscle arising from the lateral border of the scapula and running superolaterally toward the proximal humerus. Its tendon courses anterior to the posterior deltoid and inserts on the inferior facet of the greater tubercle, immediately superior to teres major and inferior to the infraspinatus tendon footprint. Bony landmarks anchor the anatomy, including the scapular spine, acromion, posterior ribs, and upper thoracic spinous processes, all oriented in standard anatomical position. Fiber direction is clear. Teres minor matters because it is the only rotator cuff component consistently supplied by the axillary nerve, so selective weakness of external rotation with posterior shoulder pain can point away from suprascapular neuropathy and toward quadrilateral space syndrome or a traction injury associated with anterior shoulder dislocation. The posterior scapular view also clarifies the interval between infraspinatus and teres minor where surgeons and anatomists localize the quadrilateral space, with the humeral surgical neck forming an anterior boundary and the long head of triceps lying medial. That spatial logic helps explain why axillary nerve compression often coexists with deltoid atrophy while sparing supraspinatus. Use this artwork in upper limb gross anatomy labs, sports medicine and orthopedics teaching on rotator cuff tears, and operative anatomy references for posterior approaches to the shoulder (including discussions of axillary nerve risk near the greater tubercle). It also fits radiology and ultrasound teaching when correlating posterior cuff tendon insertions with MRI slices at the level of the humeral head. Anatomical accuracy verified by SciePro's Medical Advisory Board.