Innervation of the hip region in the dog

Abstract

In order to determine the contributions of the nerves and their clinical involvement in the transmission of afferent and efferent nerve impulses, we performed an anatomo-topographic study of the origin and distribution of the nerves participating in the innervation of the canine pelvic limb, especially the coxo-femoral region. The study was performed on three cadavers of crossbred dogs, respectively six coxo-femoral joints. The bodies were taken from different clinics of the city of Chisinau. Pelvic region and hind limbs of cadavers were dissected and fixed in 10% formalin solution. The research results demonstrate that the canine hip is innervated by the following nerves: femoral nerve, obturator nerve, cranial gluteal nerve, caudal gluteal nerve, caudal femoral cutaneous nerve and sciatic nerve, and the joint capsule is innervated by nerve branches: femoral nerve, obturator nerve , cranial gluteal n. and sciatic n. with their respective cranioventral, caudoventral, craniolateral and dorsolateral directions. The branches of the caudal gluteal nerve were not observed to be involved in the innervation of the coxofemoral joint capsule. The data obtained provide valuable information to veterinarians to analyze the possibilities of pain reduction and possible surgical interventions in the region of the hip joint.