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The saphenous nerve is a purely sensory branch that comes from the femoral nerve in the thigh. After the femoral nerve gives branches to the quadriceps and travels through the femoral triangle, it continues into the adductor canal and then becomes the saphenous nerve. This nerve runs with the great saphenous vein down the medial leg, providing cutaneous sensation to the medial leg and foot up to the medial malleolus.

Other nerves listed don’t give rise to a saphenous branch. The obturator nerve mainly supplies the medial thigh with motor innervation and some cutaneous sensation there. The lateral femoral cutaneous nerve supplies the lateral thigh. The genitofemoral nerve provides sensation to the anterior thigh and the external genitalia.