Nerve · Lower leg

Lateral sural cutaneous nerve

Nervus cutaneus surae lateralis

A branch the common fibular nerve gives off while it is still in the hollow behind the knee, before it swings round the neck of the fibula. It supplies the skin over the upper outer calf, and — in most people — sends the sural communicating branch across the calf to join the medial sural cutaneous nerve and complete the sural nerve. That contribution is what makes the sural nerve a joint venture between the two halves of the sciatic nerve. Its root value is stated differently across standard descriptions, so no segmental level is recorded here.