Sural nerve

Nerve: Sural nerve
The small saphenous vein. (Sural nerve visible running vertically.)
Latin	nervus suralis
Gray's	subject #213 963
From	Medial sural cutaneous nerve, Sural communicating with collateral branches off of the common tibial, and common fibular nerve (S1, S2)
MeSH	Sural+Nerve

The sural nerve (short saphenous nerve), formed by the junction of the medial sural cutaneous with the peroneal anastomotic branch of the lateral sural cutaneous nerve, passes downward near the lateral margin of the tendo calcaneus, lying close to the small saphenous vein, to the interval between the lateral malleolus and the calcaneus.

It runs forward below the lateral malleolus, and is continued as the lateral dorsal cutaneous nerve along the lateral side of the foot and little toe (via a dorsal digital nerve), communicating on the dorsum of the foot with the intermediate dorsal cutaneous nerve, a branch of the superficial peroneal.

In the leg, its branches communicate with those of the collateral branches off of the common tibial, and common fibular nerve.

Clinical significance

It is often used for nerve biopsy, as well as the donor nerve when a nerve graft is performed.

Additional images

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  Cutaneous nerves of the right lower extremity. Front and posterior views.

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  Cutaneous nerves of the right lower extremity. Front and posterior views.

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  Diagram of the segmental distribution of the cutaneous nerves of the sole of the foot.

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  Deep nerves of the front of the leg.

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  Nerves of the dorsum of the foot.

External links

• SUNY Labs 11:07-0202
• Duke Orthopedics sural_nerve
• sural+nerve at eMedicine Dictionary
• Cutaneous field

This article was originally based on an entry from a public domain edition of Gray's Anatomy. As such, some of the information contained within it may be outdated.