Quick Facts
Origin: Medial and intermediate dorsal cutaneous nerves (from superficial fibular nerve), lateral dorsal cutaneous nerve (from sural nerve), and the deep fibular nerve.
Course: Pass distally on the dorsal aspects of the toes.
Branches: None.
Supply: Sensory innervation to the skin and joints of the toes.
Related parts of the anatomy
Origin
The dorsal digital nerves of the foot arise from four different nerve origins. These include the:
—medial dorsal cutaneous nerves (from superficial fibular nerve);
—intermediate dorsal cutaneous nerves (from superficial fibular nerve);
—lateral dorsal cutaneous nerve (from sural nerve);
—medial terminal branch of the deep fibular nerve (Netter, 2011).
Course
The medial dorsal cutaneous nerve gives rise to dorsal digital nerves that supply the medial aspect of the great toe, and the adjacent aspects of the second and third toes.
The intermediate dorsal cutaneous nerve gives rise to dorsal digital nerves that supply the adjacent aspects of the third and fourth, and fourth and fifth toes.
The lateral dorsal cutaneous nerve terminates as a dorsal digital nerve on the lateral aspect of the fifth toe.
The medial terminal branch of the deep fibular nerve gives rise to dorsal digital nerves which supply the adjacent aspects of the first and second toes.
Branches
There are no named branches.
Supplied Structures
The dorsal digital nerves of the foot provide sensory innervation to the skin and joints of the dorsal aspects of the toes and the interosseous spaces.
References
Netter, F. H. (2011) Atlas of Human Anatomy. Netter Basic Science Series: Saunders/Elsevier.
