Thigh Flashcards
Anterior thigh nerve, nerve roots, and function:
- femoral nerve
- L2-L4
- hip flexion and knee extension
Medial thigh nerve, nerve roots, and function:
- obturator
- L2-L4
- Hip adduction
Posterior thigh nerve, nerve roots, and function:
- tibial
- L4-S3
- knee flexion and hip extension
Fascia Lata:
- deep fascia of the thigh
- acts as a stocking facilitating venous return
Iliotibial tract:
- thick lateral portion of the fascia lata
- provides support for the knee joint and hip
- site of attachment for the gluteus maximus and tensor fascia lata muscles
- continuous into the plane of the slide into the femur with the intermuscular septum.
The iliotibial tract is a site of attachment for:
- gluteus maximus and tensor fascia lata muscles
Intermuscular septa:
- lateral and medial intermuscular septa
- subdivide the thigh into three anatomical compartments:
- anterior, medial and posterior
What subdivides the thigh into three anatomical compartments: anterior, medial, and posterior?
lateral and medial intermuscular septa
Lateral intermuscular septum:
- deep fascia extending from the iliotibial tract to the femur
Medial intermuscular septum:
- deep fascia extending from the medial aspect of the thigh to the femur.
How does the fascia lata aid the venous muscular pump system?
- muscle contracting veins cannot bulge outward due to fascia lata
- increases pressure muscles put on great saphenous vein, helping pump the blood upward.
Where is there an opening in the fascia lata?
- where the thigh crease meets the trunk.
- opening for great saphenous vein to empty into the femoral.
- Area of weakness where hernias occur.
Tensor fascia lata:
- counters hip extension
- attached to IT band
- innervated by the superior gluteal nerve
What is the only muscle that causes knee extension?
qudriceps femoris
The four heads of the quadriceps femoris:
- Rectus femoris (superficial)
- Vastus lateralis (lateral)
- Vastus medius (medial)
- Vastus intermedius (deep to rectus, in between lateralis and medius)
Rectus femoris:
- most superficial of the four quadriceps femoris heads
- only one that crosses the hip joint - a hip flexor.
All four heads of the quadriceps femoris attach to:
- tibial tuberosity of the tibia.
- via the patella, where quadriceps tendon becomes patellar ligament, which then attaches to the tibia.
Muscles in the anterior thigh involved in hip flexion:
- Iliopsoas (psoas major and iliacus)
- Sartorius
- Tensor Fascia Lata
- Rectus Femoris
Sartorious:
- two-joint muscle in anterior thigh
- not strong, great mobility
- anterior superior iliac spine to medial tibia
- CROSS LEGS
The 6 muscles of the medial thigh:
Superficial: PABALG (L→M)
- Pectineous (cut in image)
- Adductor Brevis (AB)
- Adductor Longus (AL)
- Gracilis (G)
Deep:
- Obturator Externus (OE)
- Adductor Magnus (AM)
Gracilis:
- only two joint muscle in medial thigh
- crosses hip and knee flexors.
- “groin strain” - due to hyper abduction.
Obturator nerve emerges from the obturator canal and splits into anterior and posterior branches, which are separated by:
- adductor brevis muscle.
- anterior passes on the anterior side of the adductor brevis.
Dual innervation of adductor magnus:
- ADDuctor part (hamstring part from ischial tuberosity) innervated by obturator.
- EXTensor innervated by the tibial nerve (origin: pubis)
All muscles of the posterior thigh are innervated by the tibial nerve except:
- biceps femoris short head: common fibullar nerve
Arterial supply to the entire thigh:
- Deep femoral and its branches:
- Medial Femoral Circumflex
- Lateral Femoral Circumflex
- Perforating
Common femoral artery:
- circled in black in image
- divides into deep femoral and superficial femoral arteries
Adductor Hiatus:
- Gap in the abductor magnus muscle the superficial femoral artery goes through to get to the popliteal fossa.
- SFA gets tethered in this spot - atherosclerotic disease
Femoral triangle:
- Contains (from lateral to medial):
- NAVL (femoral nerve, artery, vein, lymphatics)
- major access point for vascular acccess to the femoral via the femoral canal.
Femoral sheath:
- contains the femoral artery, vein, lymphatics in the femoral triangle.
- nerve is lateral to the femoral sheath and not contained in femoral sheath
- NAVL (L→M)
Femoral hernia:
- when part of the bowel pushes into the femoral canal, underneath the inguinal ligament.
