Fibularis tertius: Revisiting the anatomy

Abstract

Fibularis tertius (FT) may be used during reconstructive surgery and muscle transposition with retention of function. The muscle was examined in both lower limbs of 41 cadavers. Measurements were made of muscle belly length and width, tendon length and width, and the size of the origin on the fibula. Tendon insertion, nerve and blood supplies were also examined. FT was absent in five (6.1%) lower limbs of three (7.3%) subjects. The size of its origin demonstrated inter- and intra-individual variation. FT arose from the distal fibula and on average occupied (28.4 +/- 9.1)% (mean +/- S. D.) of the total shaft length. In all cases the tendon inserted into the dorsal surface of the shafts of both the fourth and fifth metatarsals. A small nerve branch consistently arose from the deep fibular nerve near the origin of extensor digitorum longus. The nerve ran parallel to the length of this muscle, between it and extensor hallucis longus, before piercing FT. Anatomy textbooks describe FT as inserting into the fifth metatarsal only. This study, supported by data from previous reports, suggests that the "textbook" accounts of FT should be updated to record that most commonly its tendon reaches both the fourth and fifth metatarsals.

An anterior fibulocalcaneus muscle: An anomalous muscle discovered in the anterior compartment of the leg

“…2B) has been documented previously in approximately 1-2% of specimens (MacAlister, 1872;Werneck, 1957;Stevens et al, 1993;Rourke et al, 2007). The literature suggests that the fibularis tertius is a young structure phylogenetically, which appears in man and hominoids and coincides with bipedal locomotion (Sokolowska-Pituchowa et al, 1974;Jungers et al, 1993;Raheja et al, 2004;Joshi et al, 2006).…”

Le muscle peroneus tertius (troisième fibulaire)

“…Il a été décrit pour la première fois au XVIII e siècle. Tous les auteurs [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] décrivent son attache proximale sur la moitié inférieure de la face médiale de la fibula, Williams et Warwick [16], Rouvière [17], Bourgery [18] ajoutent trois autres insertions proximales. Une à la partie attenante du ligament interosseux, une autre sur le septum intermusculaire antérieur et enfin, sur quelques fibres musculaires du long extenseur de l'hallux (LEH).…”

“…Il traverse le retinaculum des extenseurs en partageant la même gaine que le tendon du long extenseur des orteils (LEO). Arrivé au pied, il passe en avant de la malléole latérale et continue obliquement en bas et en avant pour se terminer sur la face dorsale du cinquième métatarsien pour certains [7,11,14,15] et sur le cinquième métatarsien plus une expansion sur le cinquième tendon du LEO et sur l'extrémité postérieure du quatrième métatarsien pour d'autres [4,5,8,10,12,13,18] Pratique / Zoom fermée. La composante longitudinale (cl) assure la coaptation de l'articulation.…”

Fibularis tertius: Some true facts

“…I read with much interest the article on the fibularis tertius (FT) written by Rourke et al (2007). The authors deserve credit for picking up a small muscle like FT.…”

“…The authors deserve credit for picking up a small muscle like FT. The authors mention in the introduction section that the surgeons can improve the delivery of oxygen, nutrients, and components of the immune system by using the FT (Rourke et al, 2007). It has to be debated if FT is the only muscle with such properties.…”