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Medial plantar artery: anatomy, location and function

The smaller terminal branch of the posterior tibial artery in the sole of the foot. It supplies the muscles and skin on the medial sole and the big toe.

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Skin0%
Muscles100%

Structures

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Highlighted in the model: Medial 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.

Medial plantar artery at a glance

What it is
The smaller terminal branch of the posterior tibial artery in the sole of the foot.
Location
It arises beneath the flexor retinaculum and runs along the medial sole with the medial plantar nerve, giving superficial and deep branches.
Function
It supplies the muscles and skin on the medial sole and the big toe.
Body system
Cardiovascular · paired (left and right)
FMA ID
FMA43930 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)

Key facts

  • Its deep branch joins the first plantar metatarsal artery; the plantar arch itself is formed mainly by the lateral plantar artery.
  • It runs between abductor hallucis and flexor digitorum brevis with the medial plantar nerve.

Structures next to the medial plantar artery

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

References

  1. Foundational Model of Anatomy: Medial plantar artery (FMA43930). 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.