Chen, Hui-Guang; Xue, Pei-Ran; Wang, Cheng-Tao; Liu, Xiao-Liu & Li, Ming-Zhe

The plantaris muscle is located between the soleus and gastrocnemius muscles, within the posterior calf group. Due to degeneration and its loss of plantar-flexion function, the muscle is vestigial in human beings, but it retains clinical significance. Few cases of variation in the plantaris muscle have been reported, and this, therefore, appears to be rare. Nonetheless, absence of this muscle was identified via the dissection of a left lower limb (male), which also indicated the absence of an attachment in the usual position. The present report, which addresses such variation, may provide both inspiration and reference points for the clinical treatment of so-called “tennis leg”, and for the use of plantaris muscle for the purposes of clinical, autologous graft repair.

KEY WORDS: Anatomical variation; Plantaris muscle; Absent; Clinical significance.

CHEN, H.; XUE, P.; WANG, C.; LIU, X. & LI, M. Variation of plantaris muscle: a case report with clinical significance. Int. J. Morphol., 40(3):851-854, 2022.