The human leg, in the general word sense, is the entire lower limb of the human body, including the foot, thigh and even the hip or gluteal region. However, the definition in human anatomy refers only to the section of the lower limb extending from the knee to the ankle, also known as the crus. Legs are used for standing, and all forms of locomotion including recreational such as dancing, and constitute a significant portion of a person's mass. Female legs generally have greater hip anteversion and tibiofemoral angles, but shorter femur and tibial lengths than those in males.
In anatomy, there are two posterior tibial veins of the lower limb. They receive blood from the medial and lateral plantar veins and drain the posterior compartment of the leg and the plantar surface of the foot to the popliteal vein which it forms when it joins with the anterior tibial vein.
The posterior tibial artery of the lower limb carries blood to the posterior compartment of the leg and plantar surface of the foot, from the popliteal artery via the tibial-fibular trunk. It is accompanied by a deep vein, the posterior tibial vein, along its course.
In human anatomy, the dorsalis pedis artery, is a blood vessel of the lower limb that carries oxygenated blood to the dorsal surface of the foot. It is located 1/3 from medial malleolus. It arises at the anterior aspect of the ankle joint and is a continuation of the anterior tibial artery. It terminates at the proximal part of the first intermetatarsal space, where it divides into two branches, the first dorsal metatarsal artery and the deep plantar artery. The dorsalis pedis communicates with the plantar blood supply of the foot through the deep plantar artery.
In human anatomy, plantar interossei muscles are three muscles located between the metatarsal bones in the foot.
The quadratus plantae is separated from the muscles of the first layer by the lateral plantar vessels and nerve. It acts to aid in flexing the 2nd to 5th toes and is one of the few muscles in the foot with no homolog in the hand.
The abductor digiti minimi is a muscle which lies along the lateral (outer) border of the foot, and is in relation by its medial margin with the lateral plantar artery, vein and nerves.
The medial plantar nerve is the larger of the two terminal divisions of the tibial nerve, which accompanies the medial plantar artery.
The long plantar ligament is a long ligament on the underside of the foot that connects the calcaneus with the cuboid bone.
The plantar metatarsal arteries are four in number, arising from the convexity of the plantar arch. They run forward between the metatarsal bones and in contact with the Interossei. They are located in the fourth layer of the foot.
The medial plantar artery, much smaller than the lateral plantar artery, passes forward along the medial side of the foot.
The plantar calcaneocuboid ligament is a ligament on the bottom of the foot that connects the calcaneus to the cuboid bone. It lies deep to the long plantar ligament.
The plantar arch is a circulatory anastomosis formed from:
On the dorsum of the foot the dorsal digital veins receive, in the clefts between the toes, the intercapitular veins from the plantar venous arch and join to form short common digital veins which unite across the distal ends of the metatarsal bones in a dorsal venous arch.
The four plantar metatarsal veins run backward in the metatarsal spaces, communicate, by means of perforating veins, with the veins on the dorsum of the foot, and unite to form the plantar venous arch which lies alongside the plantar arterial arch.
The popliteal lymph nodes, small in size and some six or seven in number, are embedded in the fat contained in the popliteal fossa, sometimes referred to as the 'knee pit'. One lies immediately beneath the popliteal fascia, near the terminal part of the small saphenous vein, and drains the region from which this vein derives its tributaries, such as superficial regions of the posterolateral aspect of the leg and the plantar aspect of the foot.
The arcuate artery of the foot gives off the second, third, and fourth dorsal metatarsal arteries, which run forward upon the corresponding Interossei dorsales; in the clefts between the toes, each divides into two dorsal digital branches for the adjoining toes.
The superficial branch of the lateral plantar nerve splits into a proper and a common plantar digital nerve:
The public domain consists of all the creative works to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable.
Gray's Anatomy is an English language textbook of human anatomy originally written by Henry Gray and illustrated by Henry Vandyke Carter. Earlier editions were called Anatomy: Descriptive and Surgical, Anatomy of the Human Body and Gray's Anatomy: Descriptive and Applied, but the book's name is commonly shortened to, and later editions are titled, Gray's Anatomy. The book is widely regarded as an extremely influential work on the subject, and has continued to be revised and republished from its initial publication in 1858 to the present day. The latest edition of the book, the 41st, was published in September 2015.
