[Plural absence of the lumbrical muscles observed in bilateral feet of a body].
A 69-year-old woman with lumbrical muscles missing in both feet was examined. The 2nd and 3rd lumbrical muscles were absent in the right foot, while the 2nd, 3rd and 4th were missing in the left foot. Bilateral absence of lumbrical muscles is very rare, and present report is the third subsequent to two reported by Wood (1867, 1868). Moreover, this is the first report of bilateral and plural absence of lumbrical muscles. Results of this study and examination of the previous reports reveal that 1. the more laterally the lumbrical muscle is situated, the more often it is absent, and 2. plural absence of the lumbrical muscles occurs in neighboring two or three ones, i.e., the second and the third or the third and fourth in the case of the two muscles absence and the second, the third and the fourth in the case of the three.
Ishizawa
Akimitsu
A
Department of Anatomy, Akita University School of Medicine, 1-1-1 Hondo, Akita 010-8543, Japan.
Yamasaki
Masahiro
M
D000368:Aged; D002102:Cadaver; D005260:Female; D005528:Foot; D006801:Humans; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000002:abnormalities*