Obturator nerve
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| Nerve: Obturator nerve | |
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| Structures surrounding right hip-joint. (Obturator nerve labeled at upper right.) | |
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| Nerves of the right lower extremity. Front view. | |
| Latin | nervus obturatorius |
| Gray's | subject #212 953 |
| Innervates | medial compartment of thigh |
| From | Lumbar plexus |
| To | posterior branch of obturator nerve, anterior branch of obturator nerve |
| Dorlands / Elsevier | n_05/12566297 |
The obturator nerve arises from the ventral divisions of the second, third, and fourth lumbar nerves; the branch from the third is the largest, while that from the second is often very small.
It descends through the fibers of the Psoas major, and emerges from its medial border near the brim of the pelvis; it then passes behind the common iliac vessels, and on the lateral side of the hypogastric vessels and ureter, which separate it from the ureter, and runs along the lateral wall of the lesser pelvis, above and in front of the obturator vessels, to the upper part of the obturator foramen.
Here it enters the thigh, through the obturator canal, and divides into an anterior and a posterior branch, which are separated at first by some of the fibers of the Obturator externus, and lower down by the Adductor brevis.
The Obturator nerve is responsible for the sensory innervation of the skin of the medial aspect of the thigh, and the motor innervation of the adductor muscles of the lower extremity (external obturator, pectineus, adductor longus, adductor brevis, adductor magnus, gracilis)
Branches
- Articular branch
- Anterior branch of obturator nerve
- Posterior branch of obturator nerve
- cutaneous branch of the obturator nerve
Additional images
 Right hip bone. Internal surface. |
 Left Levator ani from within. |
 The Obturator externus. |
 The arteries of the pelvis. |
 Variations in origin and course of obturator artery. |
 The relations of the femoral and abdominal inguinal rings, seen from within the abdomen. Right side. |
 Plan of lumbar plexus. |
 The lumbar plexus and its branches. |
 Deep and superficial dissection of the lumbar plexus. |
 Dissection of side wall of pelvis showing sacral and pudendal plexuses. |
 Sacral plexus of the right side. |
External links
- Duke Orthopedics obturator_nerve
- SUNY Labs 12:st-0602
- Cross section at UV pelvis/pelvis-female-17
- Anatomy at MUN nerve/lumbnerv
- Norman/Georgetown posteriorabdomen (posteriorabdmus&nerves)
- Image at UWash
- cutaneous field at neuroguide.com
This article was originally based on an entry from a public domain edition of Gray's Anatomy. As such, some of the information contained herein may be outdated. Please edit the article if this is the case, and feel free to remove this notice when it is no longer relevant.
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Some of the initial content on this page may be incorporated in part from copyleft sources in the public domain including wikis such as Wikipedia and AskDrWiki. Drug information for patients came from the The National Library of Medicine. Infectious disease information may have come from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Differential Diagnoses are drawn from clinicians as well as an amalgamation of 3 sources: 1.The Disease Database; 2. Kahan, Scott, Smith, Ellen G. In A Page: Signs and Symptoms. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, 2004:3; 3. Sailer, Christian, Wasner, Susanne. Differential Diagnosis Pocket. Hermosa Beach, CA: Borm Bruckmeir Publishing LLC, 2002:7 .
