Cranial Nerves Recap Flashcards
Which mnemonic is used to remember which cranial nerves carry sensation and motor?
Some Say Marry Money But My Brother Says Big Boobs Matter More
How is CN I tested?
Ask the patient if they have noticed any changes in smell recently, or use a black box.
How is CN II tested?
Use a chart and ask the patient to cover each eye in turn and read the penultimate line from five paces
Ask the patient to cover each eye in turn. Cover your corresponding eye and wiggle your finger in the peripheries of your vision, asking the patient to say yes when they can see your finger move.
How is CN III tested
Ask patient to focus in the distance, then return their vision to your fingertip. Watch their eyes for accommodation.
Ask pt to follow the movement of your finger as you draw a H in front of them
Shine a light into each of the patients eyes.
Which mnemonic is used to remember which ocular muscles are controlled by which cranial nerves?
LR6SO4
Lateral rectus CN 6, superior oblique CN 4. The rest are CN 3
How is CN V tested?
Ask the patient to close their eyes. Touch a cotton wool bud to the areas supplied by each of the three CN V branches, on both sides of the face. Ask them to tell you if it feels the same on both sides.
Ask patient to clench their jaw. Palpate temporal is and the muscles of mastication.
How is CN VII tested?
Ask patient to make funny faces. Raise eyebrows, puff cheeks, scrunch eyes, smile.
Ask pt to turn their head into your palm to test platysmus. Check both sides.
What test can differentiate a stroke from Bell’s palsy?
Ask patient to raise their eyebrows. Strokes are forehead sparing, so if they can’t, it’s Bell’s palsy.
How is CN VIII tested?
Ask patient to stand up and close their eyes. Be ready to support them if they lose balance.
Use a tuning fork to complete Rinne’s and Weber’s tests
Cover one of the patients ears and whisper a number into the other ear. Ask them to repeat the number.
Describe Weber’s test
Strike a tuning fork and place on the centre of the patients forehead
Ask if they can hear it more loudly in either ear
If, for example, they hear it more loudly in the right, it is either conductive loss in the right, or sensorineural loss in the left.
Explain how Rinne’s test is performed
Strike a tuning fork and place on the bony process behind a patient’s ear. Ask them to let you know when they can no longer hear it.
When they do, remove it from the process and hold it close to their ear. Ask them if they can still hear it.
If yes, the test is normal. If no, there may be conductive hearing loss in this ear.
How is CN IX tested?
Ask patient to stick their tongue out and say ahhh
Ask patient to cough
This also tests vagus.
How is CN XII tested?
Ask patient to stick their tongue out. Look for deviations.
Which mnemonic is used for remembering the names of the cranial nerves?
Oh. Olfactory Oh. Optic Oh. Oculomotor To. Trochlear Touch. Trigeminal And. Abducens Feel. Facial Very. Vestibulocochlear Good. Glossopharyngeal Vaginas. Vagus So. Spinal accessory Heavenly. Hypoglossal
