**3. Innervation of the knee joint**

A dermatome is an area of skin supplied by the dorsal (sensory) root of the spinal nerve. A myotome is the segmental innervations of skeletal muscle by the ventral (motor) root. An osteotome is the innervation of bone that does not follow a segmental pattern. Various branches (from the lumbar and sacral plexus) innervating the knee joint include the femoral nerve (anterior knee), obturator nerve (posteromedial knee), and sciatic nerve (posterior knee). These nerves have cutaneous branches

#### **Figure 2.**

*Dermatomal, osteotomal, and capsular innervation of the knee joint.*

*A: Dermatomal innervations, B: Osteotomal innervations, C: Capsular innervation.*

*<sup>(</sup>NVI: Nerve to vastus intermedialis, NVM: Nerve to vastus medialis, NVL: Nerve to vastus lateralis, SMGN: Superomedial genicular nerve, SLGN: Superolateral genicular nerve, IMGN: Inferomedial genicular nerve, ILGN: Inferolateral genicular nerve, IPBSN: Infrapatellar branch of saphenous nerve, RFN: Recurrent fibular nerve, TN: Tibial nerve, CPN: Common peroneal nerve, SCN: Sciatic nerve, PDOB: Posterior division of obturator nerve).*

*Regional Analgesia for Knee Surgeries: Thinking beyond Borders DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99282*


#### **Table 2.**

*Myotomal innervation of the knee joint.*

supplying skin (**Figure 2A**), muscular branches supplying muscles (**Table 2**), and articular or genicular branches supplying knee joint or joint capsule (**Figure 2B** and **C**). Before supplying the knee joint, these nerves contribute to the formation of 3 different plexuses (**Table 3**); Subsartorial plexus, Peripatellar plexus, and Popliteal plexus [10–13].

**The anterior capsule** [14, 15] of the knee joint is innervated,


**The posterior capsule** [16] of the knee joint is innervated,

