Morphological Variants of The Pes Anserinus of Tibia in South Indian Population

Abstract

IntroductionThe tendons inserting at the antero medial surface of the tibia are called ‘pes anserinus' because of the resemblance to the ‘goose foot’. The tendons radiate during the insertion and it has been reported that the variations exist in the tendons. In this context, the objective of the present study was to study the morphological variations of the pes anserinus of the tibia in South Indian population.MethodsThe present study included 53 formalin fixed human lower limbs. The tendons inserting into the antero medial surface of the tibia were carefully dissected. The morphological variants were observed and the pictures were taken. The variants were tabulated and analysed.ResultsIt was observed that, 48 lower limbs (90.6%) had convergent type of the pes anserinus in which the gracilis tendon was in between the semitendinosus and semimembranosus tendons and all joined together. The semitendinosus was giving an extra slip, which was attaching to the medial condyle of tibia in 7 cases (13.2%). The pes anserinus was inserting into the fascia cruris in 8 specimens (15.1%). The remaining 5 lower limbs (9.4%) were having variant pattern. Semimembranosus muscle was taking in the formation of pes anserinus in 3 lower limbs (5.7%). The gracilis and sartorius were absent in one lower limb each (1.9%).ConclusionThe present study has provided the morphological knowledge about the variations of pes anserinus of the tibia in South Indian population. We believe that this information is enlightening to the orthopaedic and plastic surgeons.Support or Funding InformationNILThis abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.