Origin and make up of the human sural nerve

The dissection of 37 cadavers has shown that in only a third of cases, the sural nerve comes from the communication between the medial cutaneous nerve , derived from the tibial nerve, and the communicating branch of the latera l cutaneous nerve of the leg which comes from the lateral popliteal nerve. The communication is most often at the junction between the proximal two-th irds and distal third of the leg, on average 2 mm below the transverse crea se of the popliteal fossa. The medial cutaneous nerve was absent in only on e case. On the other hand, in 11 cases the lateral cutaneous nerve or its c ommunicating branch was missing. In 12 cases without any anastomoses, the r oute of the sural nerve was followed by the medial cutaneous nerve of the l eg in 9 cases and by the lateral cutaneous nerve in 3 cases. The majority o f branches to the proximal half of the calf came from the lateral cutaneous nerve. In the lower part of the leg, the sural nerve and/or the medial cut aneous nerve gave numerous branches to the Achilles' tendon and to the inte guments of the lateral aspect of the heel and lateral malleolus.