Median Nerve Injury from the Eye of an Artist: Gladiators

Özet

Artists use their work to help us understand the universe. With their creations, we can rest our souls, find some solutions to problems,and even explore new dimensions. A 19th-century artist, Gérôme, has depicted a gesture used to ask for mercy as a benedictionsign in two of his works of art dealing with gladiatorial fighting. A warrior defeated in a gladiator combat is well known to ask formercy with the extended index finger and fist. A benediction gesture by a gladiator after combat could be due to an acute nerveinjury. At the sources that inspired the artist, the mercy gesture may have evolved into the benediction sign for an unknown reason.It is probable that a warrior cannot accurately form the mercy gesture following a peripheral nerve injury during combat. While hisindex finger was extended, the other fingers could not flex in the strict sense of making a fist due to traumatic median nerve injury.