Sesamoid bone of foot at a glance
- What it is
- Small bone embedded in a tendon under the head of the first metatarsal.
- Location
- Two lie beneath the first metatarsal head, within the tendons of flexor hallucis brevis.
- Function
- Protects the tendon of flexor hallucis longus and improves leverage and weight absorption at the big toe.
- Body system
- Skeletal · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA45098 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Clinical relevance
Sesamoiditis and fractures can cause pain under the ball of the big toe.
Structures next to the sesamoid bone of foot
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Lateral head of flexor hallucis brevis · muscular
- Proximal phalanx of big toe · skeletal
- First metatarsal bone · skeletal
- Transverse head of adductor hallucis · muscular
- Second lumbrical of foot · muscular
- Medial head of flexor hallucis brevis · muscular
- First lumbrical of foot · muscular
- First plantar interosseous of foot · muscular
- Proximal phalanx of second toe · skeletal
- Second metatarsal bone · skeletal
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Sesamoid bone of foot (FMA45098). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §7.1 Divisions of the Skeletal System. 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.