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. 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 Scarpas 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 vasti (vastus medialis muscle, vastus lateralis muscle, and vastus intermedius muscle), and articularis genus muscle. The articularis genus is supplied by a branch of the nerve to vastus intermedius. Cutaneous branches
The anterior division gives off anterior cutaneous branches: The anterior cutaneous branches are: the intermediate femoral cutaneous nerve and the medial femoral cutaneous nerve.
Additional images
See also
Femoral nerve stretch test

References
This article incorporates text in the public domain from page 955 of the 20th edition of Grays Anatomy (1918)

External links
Femoral nerve at the Duke University Health Systems Orthopedics program
MedlinePlus Encyclopedia: 000687 - "Femoral nerve dysfunction" (includes illustration)
Anatomy photo:40:17-0202 at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center - "Posterior Abdominal Wall: Nerves of the Lumbar Plexus"
Cross section image: pembody/body15a—Plastination Laboratory at the Medical University of Vienna
Cross section image: pelvis/pelvis-e12-15—Plastination Laboratory at the Medical University of Vienna
arteries-nerves%20LE/nerves1 at the Dartmouth Medical Schools Department of Anatomy