FEMORAL NERVE

SUMMARY

1. Origin - L2, L3, L4 (posterior divisions of the anterior rami).
2. Emerges from the lateral border of the psoas major and runs in the gutter b/w psoas & iliacus, deep to iliac fascia. 
3. Supplies the iliacus, then passes under the inguinal ligament & lateral to femoral sheath (remember the mnemonic 'VAN').
4. Lateral femoral circumflex artery divides its branches (9-10) into SUPERFICIAL (4 => 2 cutaneous + 2 muscular) & DEEP (5-6 => 1 to each vastus [3 total] + 2 to rectus femoris + 1 cutaneous).
5. SUPERFICIAL BRANCHES - nerve to sartorius, nerve to pectineus, intermediate femoral cutaneous nerve, medial femoral cutaneous nerve.
6. DEEP BRANCHES - 2 nerves to rectus femoris (also supplies hip), nerve to vastus lateralis, nerve to vastus intermedius, nerve to vastus medialis (largest, carries most of branches to knee joint), saphenous nerve.

Image: Gray, Henry. Anatomy of the Human Body. Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger, 1918; Bartleby.com, 2000. www.bartleby.com/107/ [Accessed 07 Apr. 2019].  

Reference(s)

R.M.H McMinn (1998). Last’s anatomy: regional and applied. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.
Gray, H., Carter, H.V. and Davidson, G. (2017). Gray’s anatomy. London: Arcturus.