Infraspinatus muscle

Main external rotator of the shoulder

In human anatomy, the infraspinatus muscle is a thick triangular muscle, which occupies the chief part of the infraspinatous fossa. As one of the four muscles of the rotator cuff, the main function of the infraspinatus is to externally rotate the humerus and stabilize the shoulder joint.

It attaches medially to the infraspinous fossa of the scapula and laterally to the middle facet of the greater tubercle of the humerus. The muscle arises by fleshy fibers from the medial two thirds of the infraspinatous fossa, and by tendinous fibers from the ridges on its surface; it also arises from the infraspinatous fascia which covers it, and separates it from the teres major and teres minor.

The tendon of this muscle is sometimes separated from the capsule of the shoulder joint by a bursa, which may communicate with the joint cavity. The infraspinatus and teres minor rotate the head of the humerus outward (external, or lateral, rotation); they also assist in carrying the arm backward.

From an evolutionary prospective, the pectoral muscles – the pectoralis major and pectoralis minor – are thought to have evolved from a primitive muscle sheet that connected the coracoid to the humerus. In late reptilians and early mammals, this muscle structure was displaced dorsally; while most of its components evolved into the pectoralis major, some fibers eventually attached to the scapula and evolved into the supraspinatus, the infraspinatus, and parts of the subscapularis.