Which part is the talus

The talus is a bone that many friends do not know where it is. In fact, the talus is the bone at the joint of the ankle and tibia. If there is any problem with the talus, it will affect the patient's normal walking. The talus bears the weight of the human body, so if there is a disease in the talus, it will easily affect the position of the joint and affect the patient's walking.

Astragalus: Together with the distal end of the tibia and the lower end of the fibula, it forms the ankle joint, which is the largest weight-bearing joint in the human body. The talus is one of the proximal bones of the tarsus in higher vertebrates and is considered to correspond to the fusion of the tibia and the talus in many lower vertebrates, the weight-bearing bone of the human body that articulates with the tibia at the ankle. It is a short bone located between the tibia, fibula and calcaneus, and is divided into three parts: head, neck and body.

Blood supply of talus and its clinical significance

The blood supply to the talus comes from three major arteries in the lower leg, namely the posterior tibial artery, anterior tibial artery, and peroneal artery and their vascular anastomoses.

1. The posterior tibial artery: The posterior tibial artery gives off the posterior tuberous branch, triangular branch and tarsal canal artery along its course from proximal to distal to supply the talus.

2. Anterior tibial artery: The anterior tibial artery is renamed the dorsalis pedis artery at the ankle joint plane. It gives off the medial and lateral anterior malleolar arteries at the ankle plane. Below them are the medial and lateral tarsal arteries, and these small arteries then give off branches to supply the talus.

3. The peroneal artery provides blood supply to the talus from two directions. One is the perforating branch of the peroneal artery, and the other is the posterior tubercular branch. The perforator of the peroneal artery passes through the interosseous membrane 1.5 to 2.5 cm above the inferior tibiofibular joint and runs forward and downward. After anastomosis with the anterior lateral malleolus artery, it gives off the proximal tarsal sinus artery. The perforator of the peroneal artery was absent in 3 specimens, accounting for 12.5%. At this time, the anterior lateral malleolus artery was relatively large. The main trunk of the peroneal artery sends out a posterior tuberosity branch medially at about the level of the ankle joint, which coincides with the branch of the calcaneal branch of the posterior tibial artery and supplies the posterior tuberosity area.

4. Vascular anastomosis: When fillers are infused into any of the three main arteries in the lower leg, the other two can be filled quickly, indicating that they are not independent of each other. Observation of the specimens revealed extensive vascular anastomoses of varying shapes between the various branches of the posterior tibial artery, anterior tibial artery, and peroneal artery supplying the talus. In addition to direct anastomoses between different arteries, a clear plexiform network of vascular anastomoses was observed in the medial region of the talus in 6 specimens (25%). The same situation occurred in the tarsal sinus region in 33.3%. Below the talus, the tarsal sinus artery anastomoses with the tarsal canal artery in the tarsal canal, connecting the vascular network on the medial and lateral sides of the talus from below. Among the anastomoses within the tarsal canal, 14 were direct anastomoses, 6 were plexiform anastomoses, and 4 had no clear extraosseous arterial anastomosis. Due to the perfusion technology and dissection operation, many small vascular anastomoses were lost. The actual vascular anastomosis should be far more than what we have observed. There is every reason to believe that the talus is at the center of a vast vascular network. Moreover, surrounding the medial surface of the tarsal canal, tarsal sinus, talar neck and talar body, an amorphous circular arterial anastomosis network is formed by the triangular branch, tarsal canal artery, tarsal sinus artery, superior neck branch and their mutual anastomotic vascular network, which we call the talar artery ring. This ring intersects obliquely with the long axis of the talus from posterior and inferior to anterior and superior. In this arterial circle, the tarsal canal artery appears smaller and therefore less important than the triangular branch and tarsal sinus arteries.