Ligament · Shoulders

Superior transverse scapular ligament

Ligamentum transversum scapulae superius

A short flat band bridging the notch on the upper border of the shoulder blade, converting an open groove into a closed hole. Its significance is entirely about what passes through it: the suprascapular nerve runs beneath the ligament while the suprascapular artery and vein cross above it, so the nerve alone is committed to a tunnel with bone on three sides and ligament on the fourth. The band is sometimes partly or wholly ossified, in which case that tunnel is bone the whole way round.