Nerve · Glutes

Superior cluneal nerves

Nervi clunium superiores

The skin of the buttock is supplied by three separate sets of nerves from three different directions, and these are the ones that come over the top. They are the lateral branches of the dorsal rami of the upper lumbar nerves — the same back-of-the-spine branches that supply the deep spinal muscles — and they descend across the back of the iliac crest, passing through openings in the thoracolumbar fascia to reach the skin of the upper buttock. Because they cross a bony ridge inside a firm fascial tunnel, that crossing is a described compression site.