Femoral nerve
Long nerve down the thigh and inner leg
The femoral nerve is a nerve in the thigh that supplies skin on the upper thigh and inner leg, and the muscles that extend the knee. It is the largest branch of the lumbar plexus.
Structure
The femoral nerve is the major nerve supplying the anterior compartment of the thigh. It is the largest branch of the lumbar plexus, and arises from the dorsal divisions of the ventral rami of the second, third, and fourth lumbar nerves (L2, L3, and L4).
The nerve enters the femoral triangle by passing beneath the inguinal ligament, just lateral to the femoral artery. In the thigh, the nerve lies in a groove between iliacus muscle and psoas major muscle, outside the femoral sheath, and lateral to the femoral artery. After a short course of about 4 cm in the thigh, the nerve is divided into anterior and posterior divisions, separated by lateral femoral circumflex artery. The branches are shown below:
Muscular branches
The nerve to the pectineus muscle arises immediately above the inguinal ligament from the medial side of the femoral nerve, and passes behind the femoral sheath to enter the anterior surface of the muscle.
Anterior division supplies the sartorius muscle
Posterior division supplies the rectus femoris muscle, the three vastus muscles – (vastus medialis, vastus lateralis, and vastus intermedius), and the articularis genus muscle. The articularis genus is supplied by a branch of the nerve to vastus intermedius.
“Femoral nerve” enters the record as long nerve down the thigh and inner leg. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Femoral, nerve and Long can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Femoral nerve” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Femoral, nerve and Long provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q545676. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Femoral nerve”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Femoral nerve primary sources, Femoral nerve archive and Femoral research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Femoral nerve”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Femoral nerve” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.