THE POPLITEAL SPACE 



1451 



f??/;"^^ fl^^ ^^""^ ""Vft ^flPP^^ the synovial membrane and the muscles which act upon the 

 jomt, reflex spasm of the flexors will help to explain the flexed position. (Hilton.) 



Anastomoses around the front and sides of the knee-joint.— The most impor- 

 tant of these take the form of three transverse arches. (1) The highest passes 

 through the quadriceps fibres just above the upper edge of the patella It is 

 formed by a branch from the deep division of the genu suprema (anastomotica 

 magna) and one from the lateral circumflex and superior lateral articular The 

 middle and lowest arches lie under the ligamentum patella. (2) The middle arch 

 formed by branches from the genu suprema and superior medial articular on the 

 medial side, and the inferior lateral articular, on the lateral, runs in the fatty tissue 



Fig. 1168. — Side View of the Popliteal Artery. 

 (From a dissection in the Hunterian Museum.) 



Femoral artery and vein • 



Branches of the medial 

 cutaneous nerve 



Sartorius 



Aponeurotic covering of 

 Hunter's canal 



Genu suprema artery 



Vertical fibres of the 

 adductor magnus 

 Popliteal artery 



LoLg saphenous nerve 



Vastus medialis 

 Cut edg", of fascia lata 



Branch of saphenous 

 nerve to patellar 

 plexus 



Posterior femoral cuta- 



'FW — "" neous nerve 



Adductor magnus 



Gracilis 



Small saphenous vein 



Part of semitendinosus 



close to the apex of the.patella. (3) The lowest arch lies on the tibia just above 

 its tuberosity, and results from the anastomosis of the recurrent tibial and 

 the interior medial articular. Seven arteries thus take place in this series of 

 anastomoses. 



POPLITEAL SPACE 



u.^K^ ^T'^-""' *^® ^u^?"^ °^ *^'^ ^P^^^ appears; in extension it is obliterated and 

 its]boundaries are ill-defined, the only ones now to be made out being the semi- 

 tendinosus and the biceps. 



fnll^w"?^"*^^^ tendons.— When the knee is a little bent and the foot rests on the ground the 

 S nT^-'^"" ^^ ""^.i^ out:-on the lateral aspect, behind the iho-tibial band, and descending to 

 the prominence on the lateral side of the head of the fibula, is the tendon o the bfceps This 



