Toe

From ArticleWorld

The toe is one of the smallest of human appendages. Each human has ten toes that are attached to the distal part of the feet.

Anatomy

The toes on a given foot are divided into the hallux or great toe that contains two phalanges and four other toes that each is supported by three phalanges. The great toe carries the important function of stabilizing the foot on the ground and aids in walking. Attached to all toes are tendons to muscles that allow for their flexion or extension. While some people have very flexible and functional toes, most can do no more than use the toes to pick up an object.

Function

The extension of the toes is accomplished by the extensor digitorum longus muscle in the anterior lower leg that sends off five extensor digitorum longus tendons to each of the four lateral toes. There is an extensor digitorum brevis (short) muscle as well.

The great toe has its own muscular attachments. The extensor hallucis longus muscle in the anterior lower leg sends a long tendon to the great toe. There is also an extensor hallucis brevis muscle and tendon. The abductor hallucis muscle allows the great toe to be separately moved away from the others.

The flexion of the toes is via the flexor digitorum longus and the flexor digitorum brevis muscles. There are lumbrical muscles between the metatarsals as well. The flexor digiti minimi muscle puts extra muscle power to flexing the small toe. It also has an abductor digiti minimi muscle for the small toe to pull away from the rest.

Conditions

The toes are common sites of injury. A crush injury can cause blood and bruising under a toenail or can crush a bony phalanx as well. The great toe and the small toe are subject to hyper-abduction states when bumping into something and can become sprained or possible fractured or dislocated.