Nerve · Hips

Lateral femoral cutaneous nerve

Nervus cutaneus femoris lateralis

A purely sensory nerve from the lumbar plexus that crosses the iliac fossa on the surface of iliacus, heading for the front of the hip bone. It leaves the abdomen by passing under — or straight through — the outer end of the inguinal ligament, right beside the bony prominence at the front of the pelvis, then turns almost a right angle downward over sartorius to supply the skin of the outer thigh from the hip to the knee. That sharp turn against a firm ligament and a bony point is the feature the nerve is known for, and the reason its described compression site is the ligament itself rather than any muscle.