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Home  »  Anatomy of the Human Body  »  pages 639

Henry Gray (1825–1861). Anatomy of the Human Body. 1918.

pages 639

  The muscular branches of the posterior tibial are distributed to the Soleus and deep muscles along the back of the leg.
  The posterior medial malleolar artery (a. malleolaris posterior medialis; internal malleolar artery) is a small branch which winds around the tibial malleolus and ends in the medial malleolar net-work.
  The communicating branch (ramus communicans) runs transversely across the back of the tibia, about 5 cm. above its lower end, beneath the Flexor hallucis longus, and joins the communicating branch of the peroneal.
  The medial calcaneal (rami calcanei mediales; internal calcaneal) are several large arteries which arise from the posterior tibial just before its division; they pierce the laciniate ligament and are distributed to the fat and integument behind the tendo calcaneus and about the heel, and to the muscles on the tibial side of the sole, anastomosing with the peroneal and medial malleolar and, on the back of the heel, with the lateral calcaneal arteries.


FIG. 554– The plantar arteries. Superficial view. (See enlarged image)


FIG. 555– The plantar arteries. Deep view. (See enlarged image)
  The medial plantar artery (a. plantaris medialis; internal plantar artery) (Figs. 554 and 555), much smaller than the lateral, passes forward along the medial side of the foot. It is at first situated above the Abductor hallucis, and then between it and the Flexor digitorum brevis, both of which it supplies. At the base of the first metatarsal bone, where it is much diminished in size, it passes along the medial border of the first toe, anastomosing with the first dorsal metatarsal artery. Small superficial digital branches accompany the digital branches of the medial plantar nerve and join the plantar metatarsal arteries of the first three spaces.
  The lateral plantar artery (a. plantaris lateralis; external plantar artery), much larger than the medial, passes obliquely lateralward and forward to the base of the fifth metatarsal bone. It then turns medialward to the interval between the bases of the first and second metatarsal bones, where it unites with the deep plantar branch of the dorsalis pedis artery, thus completing the plantar arch. As this artery passes lateralward, it is first placed between the calcaneus and Abductor hallucis,