Variations in origin of the genitofemoral nerve from the lumbar plexuses in North Indian population (a cadaveric study)

The genitofemoral is the nerve of genital region and cutaneous nerve to the femoral region. The origin of nerve is from lumbar plexus, having the root value from the ventral rami of L1 and L2. It supplies to the scrotum by its genital branch, which comes out through inguinal canal from the abdomen and its femoral branch supplies to the skin over the femoral region. It has less clinical significance even than the knowledge of genitofemoral nerve is important for surgeons who perform the surgery for repair of the inguinal hernia. The present study is conducted in the Department of Anatomy of Government Medical College Patiala (India) on 30 cadavers which are embalmed with 10% formalin and fixed. To expose the lumbar plexus opened the abdomen carefully. The roots of the lumbar plexus are cleared by sacrificing the psoas major muscle. The root values of the genitofemoral nerve are exposed by cleaning the roots and recorded the variations in its origin from the lumbar plexus and photographed. The aim of this study is to record the variations in origin of the genitofemoral nerve from the lumbar plexus and to compare the present study with the standard literature and studies done by other authors and to impart the knowledge of variations in origin of the genitofemoral nerve from the lumbar plexus. The present study is helpful for the surgeons who perform the surgery for the repair of inguinal hernia and lower abdominal surgery.