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Nerve: Lateral cutaneous nerve of thigh
Plan of lumbar plexus. (Lateral femoral cutaneous visible at left.)
Cutaneous nerves of right lower extremity. Front view.
Latin	nervus cutaneus femoralis lateralis
Gray's	subject #212 953
Innervates
From	lumbar plexus (L2–L3)
To
MeSH	{{{MeshNumber}}}

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.

Contents 1 Structure 2 Additional images 3 See also 4 External links

[edit] 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. 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. It then passes under the inguinal ligament and 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 patellar 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.

[edit] Additional images

Lateral cutaneous nerve of thigh and other structures passing behind the inguinal ligament	The great saphenous vein and its tributaries at the fossa ovalis.	The lumbar plexus and its branches.	Deep and superficial dissection of the lumbar plexus.
Diagram of segmental distribution of the lateral cutaneous nerve (shaded) and other nerves of the right leg. Front view.	Diagram of the segmental distribution of the cutaneous nerves of the right leg. Posterior view.

[edit] See also

• cutaneous nerve
• Posterior cutaneous nerve of thigh
• Meralgia paraesthetica

[edit] External links

• Duke Orthopedics lateral_femoral_cutaneous_nerve
• Dictionary at eMedicine Lateral+cutaneous+nerve+of+thigh
• SUNY Labs 40:17-0201 - "Posterior Abdominal Wall: Nerves of the Lumbar Plexus"
• Memorial University of Newfoundland - Anatomy at MUN nerve/lumbnerv
• Norman/Georgetown posteriorabdomen (posteriorabdmus&nerves)

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 Lateral cutaneous nerve of thigh. 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.