A dermatome is an area of skin that gets its sensation from a specific spinal nerve root. Spinal nerves exist in 31 pairs, one on each side of the spine. These nerves send signals for things like ...

A dermatome is an area of skin that a spinal nerve supplies. Spinal nerves branch off the spinal cord at different points along the spine. There are 31 pairs of different spinal nerves.

This is because each spinal nerve root—one on each side of the body—services a specific area of skin called a dermatome. When a shingles outbreak occurs, only that dermatome on that side of ...