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Nerve: Anterior cutaneous branches of the femoral nerve
Cutaneous nerves of right lower extremity. Front view.
[[Image:|241px|center|]]
Latin	rami cutanei anteriores nervi femoralis
Gray's	subject #212 955
Innervates
From	femoral nerve
To
MeSH	[1]

The anterior cutaneous branches of the femoral nerve consist of the following nerves: intermediate cutaneous nerve and medial cutaneous nerve.

Contents 1 Intermediate cutaneous nerve 2 Medial cutaneous nerve 3 Additional images 4 External links

[edit] Intermediate cutaneous nerve

The intermediate cutaneous nerve (middle cutaneous nerve) pierces the fascia lata (and generally the Sartorius) about 7.5 cm. below the inguinal ligament, and divides into two branches which descend in immediate proximity along the forepart of the thigh, to supply the skin as low as the front of the knee.

Here they communicate with the medial cutaneous nerve and the infrapatellar branch of the saphenous, to form the patellar plexus.

In the upper part of the thigh the lateral branch of the intermediate cutaneous communicates with the lumboinguinal branch of the genitofemoral nerve.

[edit] Medial cutaneous nerve

The medial cutaneous nerve (internal cutaneous nerve) passes obliquely across the upper part of the sheath of the femoral artery, and divides in front, or at the medial side of that vessel, into two branches, an anterior and a posterior.

The anterior branch runs downward on the Sartorius, perforates the fascia lata at the lower third of the thigh, and divides into two branches: one supplies the integument as low down as the medial side of the knee; the other crosses to the lateral side of the patella, communicating in its course with the infrapatellar branch of the saphenous nerve.

The posterior branch descends along the medial border of the Sartorius muscle to the knee, where it pierces the fascia lata, communicates with the saphenous nerve, and gives off several cutaneous branches.

It then passes down to supply the integument of the medial side of the leg.

Beneath the fascia lata, at the lower border of the Adductor longus, it joins to form a plexiform net-work (subsartorial plexus) with branches of the saphenous and obturator nerves.

When the communicating branch from the obturator nerve is large and continued to the integument of the leg, the posterior branch of the medial cutaneous is small, and terminates in the plexus, occasionally giving off a few cutaneous filaments.

The medial cutaneous nerve, before dividing, gives off a few filaments, which pierce the fascia lata, to supply the integument of the medial side of the thigh, accompanying the long saphenous vein.

One of these filaments passes through the saphenous opening; a second becomes subcutaneous about the middle of the thigh; a third pierces the fascia at its lower third.

[edit] Additional images

The great saphenous vein and its tributaries at the fossa ovalis.

Diagram of segmental distribution of the cutaneous nerves of the right lower extremity. Front view.

Diagram of the segmental distribution of the cutaneous nerves of the right lower extremity. Posterior view.

[edit] External links

• Diagram at washington.edu

This article was originally based on an entry from a public domain edition of Gray's Anatomy. As such, some of the information contained herein may be outdated. Please edit the article if this is the case, and feel free to remove this notice when it is no longer relevant.

This page uses content from the English-language version of Wikipedia. The original article was at Anterior cutaneous branches of the femoral nerve. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Psychology Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.