Posterior femoral cutaneous nerve
Nervus cutaneus femoris posterior
A sensory branch of the sacral plexus that supplies the skin of the lower buttock, the back of the thigh and the upper calf.
At a glance
- English
- Posterior femoral cutaneous nerve
- Latin (TA2)
- Nervus cutaneus femoris posterior
- System
- Nerve
- Region
- Lower limb
- Side
- Paired, left and right
About the posterior femoral cutaneous nerve
The posterior femoral cutaneous nerve arises in the pelvis from the sacral plexus, with fibres from the posterior divisions of the first and second sacral nerves and the anterior divisions of the second and third. It leaves the pelvis through the greater sciatic foramen below piriformis, together with the inferior gluteal nerve and vessels, lying medial to or behind the sciatic nerve. It then runs down beneath gluteus maximus.
At the lower border of gluteus maximus it enters the back of the thigh, where it runs down under the fascia lata, superficial to the long head of biceps femoris, which separates it from the sciatic nerve. Along the way it sends many branches through the fascia to the skin of the back and inner side of the thigh. In the popliteal fossa it pierces the deep fascia and ends in the skin over the fossa and the upper calf, sometimes following the small saphenous vein to the middle of the calf.
Its other named branches are the inferior cluneal nerves, which curl upwards round the lower edge of gluteus maximus to the skin of the lower buttock, and the perineal branches, which pass medially to the skin of the upper medial thigh and perineum. The nerve has no motor fibres. Pressure from long sitting, injections into the buttock or surgery in the region can injure it, causing numbness or burning pain on the back of the thigh without weakness, which helps distinguish it from sciatic nerve injury.
Course and supply
- Arises from
- Sacral plexus: posterior divisions of S1 and S2 and anterior divisions of S2 and S3.
- Ends in
- Skin of the popliteal fossa and upper calf, after branches to the lower buttock, perineum and back of the thigh.
- Supplies
- Sensory to the skin of the lower buttock, back and medial side of the thigh, popliteal fossa and upper calf, and part of the perineum.
Anthromica
See the posterior femoral cutaneous nerve where it really sits, with every layer of the body around it.
- Every layer, one body. Peel from muscle to bone, nerve, vessel and organ, and turn it any way.
- English and Latin. Every structure named the way your exam names it.
- Quiz until it sticks. Short drills on the structures you keep missing.
Free to start. No card.
