Bones of the Foot: Tarsals, Metatarsals & Phalanges

Bones of the foot provide balance to the whole weight of the body. The combination of the bones along with the soft tissues muscles of the foot help a human body to stand and move accordingly. During birth, the baby's body consists of a total of 300 bones which get fused into 206 bones with its growth and time. The bones of the body help in building the structure of the human body and give external and internal protection to all the organs. 

KeyTakeaways: Foot, Phalanges, Metatarsals, Tarsals, Human body, Bones, Tibia.

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Division of Foot

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The hindfoot, midfoot, and forefoot are the three major divisions of the foot. In the foot of the leg, we have three bones tarsals, metatarsals, phalanges which are placed in the above mentioned three layers of the foot.

Division of Foot

1. Hindfoot- It consists of the Proximal group of the Tarsals i.e. the Talus and the Calcaneus.
2. Midfoot- It consists of the Distal group of the Tarsals i.e. the Cuneiform bone, as well as Cuboid bone and the Navicular bone.
3. Forefoot- It consists of the Metatarsals and the Phalanges.

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Tarsals

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The human Body foot has seven tarsal bones and they appear before metatarsals and phalanges in the foot. 

Tarsals

The tarsals can be grouped into two parts:

1. Proximal group (Hindfoot part) 
2. Distal group (Midfoot part). 

Proximal Group 

The proximal group again has two bones. One of them articulates with the tibia bone and the fibula bone and is called Talus. The second bone is called Calcaneus. This part of the foot is within the Hindfoot part of the Foot.

Talus: The superior bone of the hindfoot is the Talus. Almost the entire body weight is held by the Talus. Talus sends the body forces from the tibia bone to the calcaneus bone. Since it articulates with the next largest bone of the foot, it helps the ankle to maintain the stability or balance of the entire body. 

Talus

The top of the talus connects to the tibia and to the fibula which is the two long bones of the lower leg and is called superior articulations. The connection between the talus and the calcaneus and the talus and the navicular joint are known as Inferiorly and Anteriorly articulations. And the subtalar joint articulation between the talus and the calcaneus is called the Inferiorly Articulations.

Calcaneus: The calcaneus bone is the heel bone which is the largest bone of the foot. The calcaneus has a cushy layer of fat underneath it. It softens the impact of the footsteps. It handles the weight of the whole body towards the posterior side. 

Calcaneus

The calcaneus bone connects to the talus at the subtalar joint which is also called the talocalcaneal joint and is known as the superior articulations. Again, the connection created between the calcaneus and the cuboid is known as the Anteriorly articulations. The posterior part of the calcaneus is called the Calcaneal Tuberosity and Achilles Tendon is attached to it to make a balance of the posterior weight of the body. 

Distal Group (Mid Foot)

Mid-foot is divided into 5 tarsal bones which are irregularly shaped tarsal bones. These include the five uniform bones- 

• Medial cuneiform bone
• Intermediate cuneiform bone
• Lateral Cuneiform bone
• Cuboid bone and 
• Navicular bone. 

The arch of the foot is the resultant of the midfoot bones. The midfoot bones also act as a shock absorber. 

Mid Foot

In the Distal group, there are four bones. The bones in the distal row of the foot articulate with the metatarsals. The four types of bones in the distal group are Cuneiform bones.

1. The medial bone and the lateral bone articulate with the first two-thirds metatarsals. 
2. The Cuboid bones are placed laterally on the foot and it articulates with the lateral to metatarsals. The intermediate bone sits between the proximal and the distal rows. This bone is called Navicular.
3. If you are looking at the lateral view then it can get a bit confusing because the Cuboid bone lies in line with the Navicular bone, yet the cuboid bone is in the distal group. Hence, the distal group of Tarsal bones is just those bones that articulate with the metatarsals. So, the intermediate bones, the Navicular bone, sit between the proximal row and the distal row of tarsal bones.

Tarsal Bones

Collectively the mid and the hindfoot bones- the talus, calcaneus, and the three cuneiform cuboids and the navicular bones are called the tarsals. Overall the foot and the ankle consist of 26 bones, 14 phalanges, 5 metatarsals, and 7 tarsals. Between the two feet of the quarter of the bones in the body, these bones are connected by 33 joints and are moved by more than 100 muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Tendons connect muscles to the bones and the ligaments connect bones to the bones.

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Metatarsals (Forefoot)

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The forefoot bears half of the weight of the body and is composed of the phalanges, five toes, and metatarsals. The three metatarsal bones are articulated with the Cuneiform bones of the foot. A human foot has five metatarsals and each metatarsal has a base shaft and a head.

Forefoot

Metatarsals are the longest bines of the foot that maintains the balance of the whole body. The big toe is attached to the first metatarsal bone of the foot. The attachment is called the metatarsal phalangeal joint. Under the distal area of the metatarsal, you will get two small round-shaped bones called the sesamoid bones. Below these sesamoid bones, the ball of the foot lies that maintain the strength of the whole foot. 

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Phalanges (Forefoot)

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Phalanges consist of three bones- 

1. Proximal 
2. Intermediate and 
3. Distal except for the phalanx 

Phalanges

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Things to Remember

• Metatarsals mainly have three Articulations- Proximal articulation, Lateral articulation, and distal articulation.
• The foot bones and the structure are almost similar to the hand - the only difference being the weight-bearing capacity of the foot and fewer movements.
• The foot starts with the tibia and the fibula and ends with the ankle articulations.
• Cuneiforms are positioned close to the five metatarsal bones of the foot.
• The toes of the body are mainly built by the phalanges bones which look just like the thumb of the hand. 
• The phalanges consist of the distal phalanges, middle phalanges, and the proximal phalanges.

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