Long ciliary nerve at a glance
- What it is
- The long ciliary nerves are branches of the nasociliary nerve that supply the eyeball and carry sympathetic fibres to the iris.
- Location
- Two or three nerves arise from the nasociliary nerve in the orbit and pierce the sclera near the optic nerve, running forward between the sclera and choroid.
- Function
- They provide sensory supply to the cornea, iris and ciliary body, and carry sympathetic fibres to the dilator pupillae.
- Body system
- Nervous · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA82735 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Branch of CN V1.
- Carry corneal sensation, part of the afferent limb of the corneal reflex.
Clinical relevance
Interruption of the sympathetic supply results in a miotic pupil, as in Horner syndrome.
Structures next to the long ciliary nerve
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Superior rectus · muscular
- Medial rectus · muscular
- Superior oblique · muscular
- Levator palpebrae superioris · muscular
- Ciliary ganglion · nervous
- Lateral rectus · muscular
- Superior branch of oculomotor nerve · nervous
- Inferior rectus · muscular
- Inferior branch of oculomotor nerve · nervous
- Anterior ethmoidal nerve · nervous
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Long ciliary nerve (FMA82735). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §12.1 Basic Structure and Function of the Nervous System. Rice University, 2022.
- Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.