Nerve · Lower leg

Deep peroneal nerve

Nervus fibularis profundus

The deep peroneal nerve is the nerve of lifting the foot. It runs down the front of the shin with the anterior tibial artery, supplying tibialis anterior and the toe extensors — the muscles that clear the foot from the ground with each step — and finishes with one tiny, distinctive patch of sensation: the web of skin between the great and second toes, and nothing else. That patch is a precise clinical test. Its compression site is the front of the ankle beneath the extensor retinaculum, where laces, ski boots and straps press: it gives aching across the top of the foot and numbness in that first web space.