Abductor hallucis at a glance
- What it is
- A muscle along the medial border of the sole of the foot.
- Location
- Origin: flexor retinaculum, medial process of the calcaneal tuberosity and plantar aponeurosis. Insertion: medial side of the base of the proximal phalanx of the great toe.
- Function
- Abducts and flexes the great toe and helps support the medial longitudinal arch.
- Body system
- Muscular · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA37459 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Innervation: medial plantar nerve
- Blood supply: medial plantar artery
- The medial and lateral plantar nerves and vessels enter the sole deep to it as they leave the tarsal tunnel.
Clinical relevance
Its origin from the flexor retinaculum makes it relevant in tarsal tunnel syndrome, compression of the tibial nerve behind the medial malleolus.
Structures next to the abductor hallucis
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Plantar venous arch of foot · cardiovascular
- Plantar arch · cardiovascular
- Medial plantar artery · cardiovascular
- Medial cuneiform bone · skeletal
- Medial head of flexor hallucis brevis · muscular
- First lumbrical of foot · muscular
- Deep plantar artery · cardiovascular
- Lateral head of flexor hallucis brevis · muscular
- Long plantar ligament · skeletal
- Oblique head of adductor hallucis · muscular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Abductor hallucis (FMA37459). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §11.2 Naming Skeletal Muscles. Rice University, 2022.
- Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.
Related anatomy
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.