Henry Gray (1825–1861). Anatomy of the Human Body. 1918.
pages 461
| longus. Its base divides below into four slips, one for each finger. Each slip gives off superficial fibers to the skin of the palm and finger, those to the palm joining the skin at the furrow corresponding to the metacarpophalangeal articulations, and those to the fingers passing into the skin at the transverse fold at the bases of the fingers. The deeper part of each slip subdivides into two processes, which are inserted into the fibrous sheaths of the Flexor tendons. From the sides of these processes offsets are attached to the transverse metacarpal ligament. By this arrangement short channels are formed on the front of the heads of the metacarpal bones; through these the Flexor tendons pass. The intervals between the four slips transmit the digital vessels and nerves, and the tendons of the Lumbricales. At the points of division into the slips mentioned, numerous strong, transverse fasciculi bind the separate processes together. The central part of the palmar aponeurosis is intimately bound to the integument by dense fibroareolar tissue forming the superficial palmar fascia, and gives origin by its medial margin to the Palmaris brevis. It covers the superficial volar arch, the tendons of the Flexor muscles, and the branches of the median and ulnar nerves; and on either side it gives off a septum, which is continuous with the interosseous aponeurosis, and separates the intermediate from the collateral groups of muscles. | |||||||||
| The lateral and medial portions of the palmar aponeurosis are thin, fibrous layers, which cover, on the radial side, the muscles of the ball of the thumb, and, on the ulnar side, the muscles of the little finger; they are continuous with the central portion and with the fascia on the dorsum of the hand. | |||||||||
| The Superficial Transverse Ligament of the Fingers is a thin band of transverse fasciculi (Fig. 425); it stretches across the roots of the four fingers, and is closely attached to the skin of the clefts, and medially to the fifth metacarpal bone, forming a sort of rudimentary web. Beneath it the digital vessels and nerves pass to their destinations. | |||||||||
1. The Lateral Volar Muscles (Figs. 426, 427) | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| The Abductor pollicis brevis (Abductor pollicis) is a thin, flat muscle, placed immediately beneath the integument. It arises from the transverse carpal ligament, the tuberosity of the navicular, and the ridge of the greater multangular, frequently by two distinct slips. Running lateralward and downward, it is inserted by a thin, flat tendon into the radial side of the base of the first phalanx of the thumb and the capsule of the metacarpophalangeal articulation. | |||||||||
| The Opponens pollicis is a small, triangular muscle, placed beneath the preceding. It arises from the ridge on the greater multangular and from the transverse carpal ligament, passes downward and lateralward, and is inserted into the whole length of the metacarpal bone of the thumb on its radial side. | |||||||||
| The Flexor pollicis brevis consists of two portions, lateral and medial. The lateral and more superficial portion arises from the lower border of the transverse carpal ligament and the lower part of the ridge on the greater multangular bone; it passes along the radial side of the tendon of the Flexor pollicis longus, and, becoming tendinous, is inserted into the radial side of the base of the first phalanx of the thumb; in its tendon of insertion there is a sesamoid bone. The medial and deeper portion of the muscle is very small, and arises from the ulnar side of the first metacarpal bone between the Adductor pollicis (obliquus) and the lateral head of the first Interosseous dorsalis, and is inserted into the ulnar side of the base of the first phalanx with the Adductor pollicis (obliquus). The medial part of the Flexor brevis pollicis is sometimes described as the first Interosseous volaris. | |||||||||