Non-sagittal Movements in Lower Leg and Foot, and Some of Their Underlying Anatomical and Kinematical Principles

Abstract

In human gait, at the end of the stance phase, the lower leg normally performs a slight temporary lateral rotation, while the foot simultaneously shows inversion through mid-stance until toe-off. The subsequent swing phase mostly shows the foot swaying more or less in inversion, in order to be repositioned, as the lower leg does, during late swing and after touchdown. While these non-sagittal events in lower leg, ankle and foot have been hitherto insufficiently analyzed in quadrupeds, more profound analysis in terms of arthrology and myology of lower leg and foot in primates and their predecessors remained quite scarce as well. Therefore, in our laboratory of anatomy, a series of measurements in anatomical specimens of human lower leg and foot was performed, in order to quantify with regard to gross anatomy some of the underlying functional-morphological mechanisms of such nonsagittal movements. As the majority of the abovementioned studies has been published else already, this review emphasizes their methods and results, with possible applications to well-known phenomena of foot inversion and foot eversion, that occur during the normal walking and running cycles, e.g. in children.