Pancreas pain is referred to which spinal levels?

• A. T1-T3
• B. L1-L3
• C. C8-T1
• D. T6-T10

Answer: (D)

The main idea is that visceral pain from the pancreas travels with sympathetic nerve fibers to thoracic spinal levels, and the brain interprets that input as coming from the skin areas served by those same segments. The pancreas is located in the upper abdomen and retroperitoneal space, and its visceral afferents enter the spinal cord around the mid to lower thoracic levels. This convergence causes pain to be felt in the thoracic dermatomes from about the sixth to the tenth levels (roughly the epigastric region and the mid-back around the T6–T10 dermatomes). That’s why pancreatic pain is commonly described as reaching the back between the shoulder blades and the upper abdomen, aligning with T6 through T10.

Other ranges don’t fit because they map to different regions: T1–T3 to the chest area, L1–L3 to the lower abdomen/groin, and C8–T1 to parts of the inner forearm and hand.