Obturator externus at a glance
- What it is
- A flat, fan-shaped deep muscle of the medial thigh that wraps behind the neck of the femur.
- Location
- Originates from the outer surface of the obturator membrane and the adjacent margin of the obturator foramen, and inserts into the trochanteric fossa of the femur.
- Function
- Laterally rotates the thigh at the hip and helps stabilize the femoral head in the acetabulum.
- Body system
- Muscular · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA22326 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Innervation: obturator nerve (L3–L4), posterior division
- Blood supply: obturator artery and medial circumflex femoral artery
Structures next to the obturator externus
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Obturator internus · muscular
- Lateral circumflex femoral artery · cardiovascular
- Deferent duct · reproductive
- Gemellus inferior · muscular
- Quadratus femoris · muscular
- Gemellus superior · muscular
- Pectineus · muscular
- Gluteus maximus · muscular
- Puborectalis · muscular
- Pubococcygeus · muscular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Obturator externus (FMA22326). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §11.2 Naming Skeletal Muscles. Rice University, 2022.
- Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.
Related anatomy
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.