Anatomy study note · Lower limb

Femoral nerve

The largest branch of the lumbar plexus (L2–L4). It supplies all the muscles of the front of the thigh and skin along the length of the limb.

Key points

• L2–4; lateral to the femoral artery, outside the femoral sheath.
• Anterior compartment: quadriceps, sartorius, pectineus.
• Saphenous nerve = its longest cutaneous branch.
• Knee jerk.
• Upper limb nerves: C4–T2 segments; lower limb: L2–S2.
• Ventral root: basal-lamina neurons. Dorsal root: neural-crest ganglion cells.
• Nerve: epineurium → perineurium (blood–nerve barrier) → endoneurium.
• Cut nerve: Wallerian degeneration; regrows 0.5–3 mm/day.

The full note in the atlas also covers

Course · Branches · Histology · Development · Clinical notes

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Written from

• Snell’s Clinical Anatomy by Regions, 10th ed., ch. 11, PDF pp. 1318–1320; ch. 7, PDF p. 968
• Inderbir Singh’s Human Embryology, ch. 17, PDF pp. 318, 321, 323–325; ch. 10, PDF pp. 143–144
• BRS Cell Biology & Histology, 7th ed., ch. 9, PDF pp. 163–166, 171–172

More from the lower limb

• Femoral vein
• Femur
• Fibula
• Fibularis brevis
• Fibularis longus
• Fibularis tertius
• Flexor digitorum longus
• Flexor hallucis longus
• Gastrocnemius
• Gluteal nerves
• Gluteus maximus
• Gluteus medius

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