The clinical anatomy of the intrinsic muscles of the sole of the foot.
Lesions of the foot are common and occur at all ages. In the young, congenital nervous anomalies may be responsible. In adolescence, diabetic patients suffer frequently, and in the elderly both diabetes and arteriosclerosis take their toll. A method in the management of ulcers of the foot is by the transposition of muscle/s into the defect/s with or without the use of skin grafts to the muscle. To perform these procedures, a knowledge of the applied anatomy of the intrinsic muscles is required. Traditionally, the muscles of the sole of the foot have always been described in four layers, but it is more pragmatic to divide them into peripheral and central groups. The peripheral muscles, one long and one short, lie on each border of the foot and reach the proximal phalanges of the digits only. The central muscles are more numerous as they occupy the spaces formed by the longitudinal and transverse arches. Except for one muscle that runs obliquely and transversely to support the transverse arch, the central muscles run longitudinally, and are placed one on top of another, the superficial muscles reaching the intermediate phalanges and the deeper muscles, the distal phalanges.
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D005528:Foot / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D006801:Humans; D009132:Muscles / Q000033:anatomy & histology*