Morphological structure and variations of lumbar plexus in human fetuses.

The objective of this study is to study the anatomy of lumbar plexus on human fetuses and to establish its morphometric characteristics and differences compared with adults. Twenty lumbar plexus of 10 human fetal cadavers in different gestational ages and genders were dissected. Lumbar spinal nerves, ganglions, and peripheral nerves were exposed. Normal anatomical structure and variations of lumbar plexus were investigated and morphometric analyses were performed. The diameters of lumbar spinal nerves increased from L1 to L4. The thickest nerve forming the plexus was femoral nerve, the thinnest was ilioinguinal nerve, the longest nerve through posterior abdominal wall was iliohypogastric nerve, and the shortest nerve was femoral nerve. Each plexus had a single furcal nerve and this arose from L4 nerve in all fetuses. No prefix or postfix plexus variation was observed. In two plexuses, L1 nerve was in the form of a single branch. Also, in two plexuses, genitofemoral nerve arose only from L2 nerve. Accessory obturator nerve was observed in four plexuses. According to these findings, the morphological pattern of the lumbar plexus in the fetus was found to be very similar to the lumbar plexus in adults. Clin. Anat. 27:383–388, 2014. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.