Lateral cutaneous nerve of thigh

The lateral cutaneous nerve of the thigh (also called the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve) is a cutaneous nerve that innervates the skin on the lateral part of the thigh.

Lateral cutaneous nerve of thigh
Plan of lumbar plexus. (Lateral femoral cutaneous visible at left.)
Cutaneous nerves of the right lower extremity. Front and posterior views.
Details
Fromlumbar plexus (L2–L3)
InnervatesSkin on the lateral part of the thigh
Identifiers
Latinnervus cutaneus femoris lateralis
TAA14.2.07.011
FMA16485
Anatomical terms of neuroanatomy

Structure

The lateral cutaneous nerve of the thigh is a nerve of the lumbar plexus. It arises from the dorsal divisions of the second and third lumbar nerves (L2-L3). It emerges from the lateral border of the psoas major at about its middle, and crosses the iliacus muscle obliquely, toward the anterior superior iliac spine (ASIS). It then passes under the inguinal ligament, through the lacuna musculorum and then over the sartorius muscle into the thigh, where it divides into an anterior and a posterior branch.

The anterior branch becomes superficial about 10 cm below the inguinal ligament, and divides into branches which are distributed to the skin of the anterior and lateral parts of the thigh, as far as the knee. The terminal filaments of this nerve frequently communicate with the anterior cutaneous branches of the femoral nerve, and with the infrapatellar branch of the saphenous nerve, forming with them the peripatellar plexus.

The posterior branch pierces the fascia lata, and subdivides into filaments which pass backward across the lateral and posterior surfaces of the thigh, supplying the skin from the level of the greater trochanter to the middle of the thigh.

Entrapment is caused by compression of the nerve near the ASIS and inguinal ligament and is commonly known as Meralgia paraesthetica or Bernhardt-Roth syndrome.

Additional images

See also

References

This article incorporates text in the public domain from page 953 of the 20th edition of Gray's Anatomy (1918)


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