Quadriceps femoris

The quadriceps femoris (Latin: musculus quadriceps femoris) is a large muscle complex mainly placed in the anterior compartment of the thigh. It is one of the strongest muscles in the human body. The quadriceps femoris is composed of four individual muscles:

• Rectus femoris
• Vastus medialis
• Vastus intermedius
• Vastus lateralis

These muscles have different origin sites, but they share a common insertion place. As all the quadriceps femoris muscles descend, they form a common tendon near the patella that inserts on the tibial tuberosity of the tibia.

Primary, the quadriceps femoris muscles act at the knee joint, and it is a leg extensor muscle. But besides that, the rectus femoris provides thigh flexion at the hip joint. The motor innervation to all quadriceps femoris muscles is provided by the femoral nerve (L2 - L4) that arises from the lumbar plexus, while the vascular supply depends on the muscle.