Lower limb
Saphenous nerve
Nervus saphenus
- Origin
- Largest and longest terminal branch of the femoral nerve, purely sensory (L3–L4)
- Insertion
- Traverses the adductor canal, pierces the vastoadductor membrane, gives off the infrapatellar branch, and descends the medial leg alongside the great saphenous vein to the medial border of the foot
- Function
- Pure sensory innervation to the infrapatellar region, anterior medial knee, medial leg, medial malleolus, and medial foot up to the first metatarsophalangeal joint
- Innervation
- Pure sensory nerve (L3–L4)
- Movement & chain
- Accommodates medial knee flexion and leg excursion
- Palpation
- Sensory testing along the medial surface of the tibia and medial foot border
- Clinical
- Infrapatellar nerve injury/neuroma following knee arthroscopy, ACL reconstruction, or open medial meniscectomy; Adductor canal entrapment syndrome
- Segmental innervation
- L3–L4 spinal segments
- In clinical practice
- Target for the Adductor Canal Block (ACB), preserving quadriceps motor power while providing potent analgesia following total knee replacement allowing same-day ambulation
- Region in the model
- Lower limb