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Lateral plantar artery: anatomy, location and function

The lateral plantar artery is the larger terminal branch of the posterior tibial artery in the sole. It supplies the lateral part of the sole and the toes.

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Highlighted in the model: Lateral plantar artery. Click any part to read about it, or switch off “Highlight topic” to see the whole body. 3D data: BodyParts3D, © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0; meshes simplified and recoloured. The model is an adult male.

Lateral plantar artery at a glance

What it is
The lateral plantar artery is the larger terminal branch of the posterior tibial artery in the sole.
Location
It arises under the flexor retinaculum, runs laterally and forward across the sole between the first and second muscle layers, then turns medially between the third and fourth layers to form the deep plantar arch with the deep plantar artery.
Function
It supplies the lateral part of the sole and the toes.
Body system
Cardiovascular · paired (left and right)
FMA ID
FMA43932 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)

Key facts

  • It is accompanied by the lateral plantar nerve, which shares its course across the sole.

Structures next to the lateral plantar artery

The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:

References

  1. Foundational Model of Anatomy: Lateral plantar artery (FMA43932). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
  2. OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §20.1 Structure and Function of Blood Vessels. Rice University, 2022.
  3. 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.