Each of these nerves relays sensation (including pain) from a particular region of skin to the brain.Along the thorax and abdomen, the dermatomes are like a stack of discs forming a human, each supplied by a different spinal nerve.Although the general pattern is similar in all people, the precise areas of innervation are as unique to an individual as fingerprints.A dermatome is an area of skin supplied by sensory neurons that arise from a spinal nerve ganglion.Symptoms that follow a dermatome (e.g. like pain or a rash) may indicate a pathology that involves the related nerve root.
Dermatomes of the lower limb (modified, from Fender, after Foerster)