Vastus Medialis

Information about Vastus Medialis



Vastus medialis

Muscles of lower extremity
	subject #128 471
Origin:	femur
Insertion:	patella
Artery:	femoral artery
Nerve:	femoral nerve
Action:	extends leg

The vastus medialis, often called the 'teardrop' muscle, is a medially located muscle of the quadriceps.

Function

Vastus medialis has been widely reported to be responsible for extending the leg the last 10%, however this commonly held claim has no basis, indeed there is a reasonable body of evidence to the contrary. The vasti instead appear to act largely in a co-ordinated manner throughout the control of knee extension.

Much has been made of the ability of the Vastus Medialis to translate the patella medially, however since approximately 70% of the contractile fibres attach directly to the common extensor tendon (which then inserts centrally to the superior patella) the functional ability to achieve this goal may be overstated, and is likely dwarfed by the bony congruence of the patella in the trochlea notch. Some authorities maintain there is a separate aspect to the Vastus Medialis muscle - the "Vastus Medialis Obliquus" or more commonly the "VMO" which is reported to have a more oblique or horizontal orientation to the bulk of the remainder of the muscle thereby disposing it to be better able to 'pull' the patella medially. Unfortunately careful inspection of many cadavers reveals that the fibres of the Vastus Medialis are largely parallel and there is no significant separate aspect of the contractile fibres fitting this description which would suggest it is time to lay this clinical myth to rest.

Often medical and other allied health practitioners suggest improving the strength and/or activation of this muscle as a strategy in the treatment of anterior knee pain - sometimes called runner's knee.

Lunges are an exercise sometimes used to target this muscle.

Origin and insertion

It arises from the lower half of the intertrochanteric line, the medial lip of the linea aspera, the upper part of the medial supracondylar line, the tendons of the Adductor longus and the Adductor magnus and the medial intermuscular septum.

Its fibers are directed downward and forward, and are chiefly attached to an aponeurosis which lies on the deep surface of the muscle and is inserted into the medial border of the patella and the Quadriceps femoris tendon, an expansion being sent to the capsule of the knee-joint.

Relations

The Vastus medialis and Vastus intermedius appear to be inseparably united, but when the Rectus femoris has been reflected a narrow interval will be observed extending upward from the medial border of the patella between the two muscles, and the separation may be continued as far as the lower part of the intertrochanteric line, where, however, the two muscles are frequently continuous.

Additional images

Right femur. Posterior surface.

Muscles of the iliac and anterior femoral regions.

The femoral artery.

External links

LUC vasm
Cross section at UV pembody/body18b
Vastus+medialis+muscle at eMedicine Dictionary
PTCentral

This article was originally based on an entry from a public domain edition of Gray's Anatomy. As such, some of the information contained herein may be outdated. Please edit the article if this is the case, and feel free to remove this notice when it is no longer relevant.

• • [ e] Muscles of lower limbs
ILIAC REGION/ILIOPSOAS	psoas major - psoas minor - iliacus
BUTTOCKS	gluteals: (maximus, medius, minimus) - tensor fasciae latae lateral rotator group: piriformis - obturator externus - obturator internus - inferior gemellus - superior gemellus - quadratus femoris
THIGH	anterior compartment: sartorius - quadriceps (rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus intermedius, vastus medialis) - articularis genu medial compartment/adductor: gracilis - pectineus - adductor brevis - adductor longus - adductor magnus posterior compartment/hamstring: biceps femoris - semitendinosus, semimembranosus
LEG	anterior compartment: tibialis anterior - extensor hallucis longus - extensor digitorum longus - fibularis tertius posterior compartment: superficial - calf/triceps surae (gastrocnemius, soleus) - plantaris deep - popliteus - tarsal tunnel (flexor hallucis longus - flexor digitorum longus - tibialis posterior) lateral compartment: fibularis muscles (longus - brevis)
FOOT	dorsal - extensor digitorum brevis - extensor hallucis brevis plantar first layer - abductor hallucis - flexor digitorum brevis - abductor digiti minimi plantar second layer - quadratus plantae - lumbrical muscle plantar third layer - flexor hallucis brevis - adductor hallucis - flexor digiti minimi brevis plantar fourth layer - dorsal interossei - plantar interossei

bold refer to the diagram at right.)

In the skull (8):

1-9. cranium
7. mandible

''In the middle ears (6):

malleus
incus
stapes

In the throat (1):

hyoid

In the shoulder girdle (4):
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The femur or thigh bone is the longest, most voluminous, and strongest bone of mammalian bodies. It forms part of the hip and part of the knee.

The word femur is Latin for thigh.
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bold refer to the diagram at right.)

In the skull (8):

1-9. cranium
7. mandible

''In the middle ears (6):

malleus
incus
stapes

In the throat (1):

hyoid

In the shoulder girdle (4):
..... Click the link for more information.

The patella or kneecap is a thick, triangular bone which articulates with the femur and covers and protects the front of the knee joint. It is the largest sesamoid bone in the human body.
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Arteries are muscular blood vessels that carry blood away from the heart.^[1] All arteries, with the exception of the pulmonary and umbilical arteries, carry oxygenated blood.

The circulatory system is extremely important for sustaining life.
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The femoral artery is a large artery in the muscles of the thigh.

Structure

The femoral artery is a continuation of the external iliac artery, which comes from the abdominal aorta.
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Accessory nerve
Accessory obturator nerve
Alderman's nerve
Anococcygeal nerve
Ansa cervicalis
Anterior interosseous nerve
Anterior superior alveolar nerve
Aortic plexus
Auerbach's plexus
Auriculotemporal nerve
Axillary nerve

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The femoral nerve, the largest branch of the lumbar plexus, arises from the dorsal divisions of the second, third, and fourth lumbar nerves. It descends through the fibers of the Psoas major, emerging from the muscle at the lower part of its lateral border, and passes down between
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Kinesiology is the scientific study of the anatomy, physiology, and mechanics of body movement, especially in humans. ^[1] The word kinesiology is derived the Greek "kinesis" (motion) + the suffix -ology or -logy from the greek "logos" or "logia"(meaning a field of study).
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Extension is a movement of a joint. For example, extension is produced by extending the flexed elbow. The arm is now straight; it has been extended. If the head is tilted all the way back, it is said to be extended.

The movement in the opposite directions is called flexion.
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Medial has several meanings:

In mathematics, medial is a set with a binary operation satisfying certain properties, see medial.
In anatomy, medial

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MUSCLE (multiple sequence comparison by log-expectation) is public domain, multiple sequence alignment software for protein and nucleotide sequences.
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"Quads" redirects here. For other uses see Quad

The quadriceps femoris (quadriceps, quadriceps extensor, guads or quads) includes the four prevailing muscles on the front of the thigh.
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MeSH D046789

Chondromalacia Patellae (also known as CMP, Patello-femoral Pain Syndrome, or Runner's Knee) is a degenerative condition of the cartilage surface of the back of the knee cap, or patella.
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The lunge is a weight training exercise that is used to strengthen the quadriceps muscles, gluteal muscles and the muscles comprising the "hamstrings", the semitendinosus, the semimembranosus, and the biceps femoris.
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Running obliquely downward and medialward from the tubercle of the femur is the intertrochanteric line (spiral line of the femur); it winds around the medial side of the body of the bone, below the lesser trochanter, and ends about 5 cm.
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The linea aspera is a ridge of roughened surface on the posterior aspect of the femur, to which are attached muscles and intermuscular septa.

Its margins diverge above and below.
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The inferior third of the medial border of the humerus is raised into a slight ridge, the medial supracondylar ridge (or medial supracondylar line), which becomes very prominent below; it presents an anterior lip for the origins of the Brachialis and Pronator teres, a
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The adductor longus muscle is a muscle of the human body. It is a part of the adductor group of the thigh, that as the name suggests adducts the thigh.

It originates on the pubic body just below the pubic crest and inserts into the middle third of linea aspera.
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The adductor magnus is a large triangular muscle, situated on the medial side of the thigh.

The portion which arises from the ischiopubic ramus (a small part of the inferior ramus of the pubis, and the inferior ramus of the ischium) is called the "adductor portion", and the
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Aponeuroses (απο, "away" or "of", and νευρον, "sinew") are membranes separating muscles from each other. They have a shiny, whitish-silvery color, and are histologically similar to tendons, but are very sparingly supplied with blood
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"Quads" redirects here. For other uses see Quad

In human anatomy, the knee is the lower extremity joint connecting the femur and the tibia. Since in humans the knee supports nearly the entire weight of the body, it is the joint most vulnerable both to acute injury and to the development of osteoarthritis.
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The Vastus intermedius (Crureus) arises from the front and lateral surfaces of the body of the femur in its upper two-thirds and from the lower part of the lateral intermuscular septum.
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The Rectus femoris muscle is one of the four quadriceps muscles of the human body. (The others are the vastus medialis, the vastus intermedius (deep to the rectus femoris), and the vastus lateralis.
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Loyola University Chicago is a private co-educational religious-affiliated university established in Chicago in 1870 as Saint Ignatius College. It was founded by the Roman Catholic religious order of the Society of Jesus and bears the name of the Jesuit patron, Saint Ignatius of
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Medical University of Vienna , formerly the faculty of medicine of the University of Vienna, became an independent university on January 1, 2004. The independence of medical schools from the structure of "general" universities was part of a larger reform of the Austrian university
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eMedicine is an online clinical medical knowledge base that was founded in 1996 by Scott Plantz and Richard Lavely, two medical doctors. It was sold to WebMD in January 2006.
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Public domain comprises the body of knowledge and innovation (especially creative works such as writing, art, music, and inventions) in relation to which no person or other legal entity can establish or maintain proprietary interests within a particular legal jurisdiction.
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