Nerve · Hips

Femoral nerve

Nervus femoralis

The femoral nerve is the largest branch of the lumbar plexus and the nerve of straightening the knee. It supplies the quadriceps, sartorius and pectineus, and carries sensation from the front of the thigh and — through its long saphenous branch — a strip running all the way down the inner side of the leg to the inner ankle. It enters the thigh by passing under the inguinal ligament, just outside the femoral artery, which is where it can be compressed. Femoral nerve trouble shows up as a knee that gives way going downstairs, a lost knee-jerk, and numbness down the front of the thigh.