The femoral nerve
Femoral nerve · nervus femoralis
The nerve that straightens your knee and gives feeling to the front of the thigh.
What it does
The femoral nerve comes from the lumbar spine, passes through the psoas and under the inguinal ligament into the thigh. It powers the quadriceps that straighten the knee and the muscles that lift the thigh, and its long branch, the saphenous nerve, carries feeling down the inner leg.
Surprising fact
In the groin it lies just outside the femoral artery, which helps anaesthetists find it to numb the thigh for hip and knee surgery.
Why it matters
Doctors test it with the knee-jerk reflex: tapping the tendon below your kneecap stretches the quadriceps and makes your leg kick.
Nearby
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Sources
Drafted with AI help; awaiting a human fact-check against these sources.
Open in the 3D atlas · Suggest a correction · Not medical advice.
3D models: Z-Anatomy & BodyParts3D (CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2.1 JP). Card text CC BY 4.0.