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Patellar ligament: anatomy, location and function

The patellar ligament (patellar tendon) is the strong band below the kneecap that carries the pull of the quadriceps muscle to the tibia. It is the continuation of the quadriceps femoris tendon below the patella, so it transmits the quadriceps' pull that straightens the knee.

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Highlighted in the model: Patellar ligament. Click any part to read about it, or switch off “Highlight topic” to see the whole body. Use Male / Female to switch bodies. 3D data: BodyParts3D, © The Database Center for Life Science; knee ligaments, menisci, tonsils, palate and parotid glands from the Human Reference Atlas Visible Human Male model and female parts from its Visible Human Female model (HuBMAP / NIH); lung lobes built from the BodyParts3D chest; all CC BY 4.0; meshes simplified and recoloured. The default body is an adult male.

Patellar ligament at a glance

Also called
Patellar tendon
What it is
The patellar ligament (patellar tendon) is the strong band below the kneecap that carries the pull of the quadriceps muscle to the tibia.
Location
It begins at the apex (lower point) of the patella and inserts on the tibial tuberosity. The infrapatellar (Hoffa) fat pad lies behind it.
Function
It is the continuation of the quadriceps femoris tendon below the patella, so it transmits the quadriceps' pull that straightens the knee.
Body system
Skeletal · paired (left and right)
FMA ID
FMA44581 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)

Key facts

  • It is about 5 cm long, roughly the height of the patella, 20 to 30 mm wide and 4 to 6 mm thick.
  • Because the patella is a sesamoid bone embedded in the quadriceps tendon, the band below it is considered the distal part of that tendon; it is also called a ligament because it joins two bones.
  • It has no tendon sheath, only a paratenon.
  • In this 3D model the BodyParts3D patella sits low, so the ligament shown is only about 2.3 cm long.

Structures next to the patellar ligament

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

References

  1. Foundational Model of Anatomy: Patellar ligament (FMA44581). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
  2. Radiopaedia. Patellar tendon.
  3. TeachMeAnatomy. The Knee Joint.
  4. OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §7.1 Divisions of the Skeletal System. Rice University, 2022.
  5. 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.
  6. Browne K., Schlehlein H. (2026). 3D Reference Organ Set for Male, v1.10 (Visible Human Male). Human Reference Atlas 3D Reference Object Library, HuBMAP / NIH. 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.