Gracilis at a glance
- What it is
- A long, thin muscle on the medial side of the thigh.
- Location
- Origin: body and inferior ramus of the pubis. Insertion: superior part of the medial surface of the tibia (pes anserinus).
- Function
- Adducts the thigh and flexes and medially rotates the leg.
- Body system
- Muscular · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA43883 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Innervation: obturator nerve (L2–L3)
- It is the only adductor that crosses the knee
Clinical relevance
Its tendon is often used for grafts in reconstructive surgery.
Structures next to the gracilis
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Semimembranosus · muscular
- Vastus medialis · muscular
- Semitendinosus · muscular
- Adductor magnus · muscular
- Sartorius · muscular
- Vastus intermedius · muscular
- Long head of biceps femoris · muscular
- Descending branch of lateral circumflex femoral artery · cardiovascular
- Femur · skeletal
- Vastus lateralis · muscular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Gracilis (FMA43883). 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.