Functional Anatomy of the Nerves of the Lower Extremity

All or most of the nerves of interest to regional anesthesiologists or acute pain physicians are mixed nerves with autonomic, sensory, motor, and proprioception functions. Each function is conducted by a specific type of nerve axon. We provided an overview of these axons and their functions in Chapter 2 (Table 1 of Chapter 2). For the purposes of this chapter, the authors focus on the sensory and motor function of each of the nerves. To create the video productions that accompany this chapter, Mary Bryson painted the muscles and nerves on a model and we used percutaneous nerve mapping as described by Bösenberg and his colleagues to illustrate the motor function of each nerve (Movies 1 to 6). With the aid of a peripheral nerve stimulator, the path of many superficial peripheral nerves can be “mapped” prior to skin penetration by stimulating the motor component of the peripheral nerve percutaneously with 1.5- to 2.5-mA current output.

Keywords: Acute pain medicine, Autonomic function, Body painting, Common peroneal nerve function, Femoral nerve function, Motor function, nerve axon, Nerve functions, Nerve to sartorius function, percutaneous nerve mapping, peripheral nerve stimulator, Posterior tibial nerve function, proprioception function, Regional anesthesia, Sciatic nerve function, Sensory function, Surface anatomy, Tibial nerve function.