- published: 21 Feb 2013
- views: 36273
The fibula or calf bone is a bone placed on the lateral side of the tibia, with which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones, and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. Its upper extremity is small, placed toward the back of the head of the tibia, below the level of the knee-joint, and excluded from the formation of this joint. Its lower extremity inclines a little forward, so as to be on a plane anterior to that of the upper end; it projects below the tibia, and forms the lateral part of the ankle-joint.
The word Fibula can be dated back to c. 1670, defining a clasp or brooch, and was first used in English for the smaller bone in the lower leg c. 1706. It derives from Latin fībula also meaning a clasp or brooch. The bone was so called because it resembles a clasp like a modern safety pin.
The bone has the following components:
The blood supply is important for planning free tissue transfer because the fibula is commonly used to reconstruct the mandible. The shaft is supplied in its middle third by a large nutrient vessel from the peroneal artery. It is also perfused from its periosteum which receives many small branches from the peroneal artery. The proximal head and the epiphysis are supplied by a branch of the anterior tibial artery. In harvesting the bone the middle third is always taken and the ends preserved (4 cm proximally and 6 cm distally)
I've got a big bag of crabs here
I'm gonna put them in my mouth, oh yes!
I'm gonna run around the town on a market day
Everyone will look at me and say
I've got a mouthful of crabs!
*Vic Reeves jazzy hebedoo-hehboo-hai-badee singy bit*