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A bilateral third head of the gastrocnemius which is morphologically similar to the plantaris

  • Anatomic Variations
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Abstract

Purpose

An extra muscle was observed on both sides of the popliteal fossa in the cadaver of a 78-year-old Japanese male during dissection. The aim of this case report was to identify whether this variant is a double plantaris or a third head of the gastrocnemius according to its morphological characteristics and innervation.

Methods

The muscles were displayed by careful dissection and delineation of surrounding structures. The size of each of the muscle bellies and tendons of those extra muscles were measured manually by the vernier caliper.

Results

The origin of each extra muscle was lateral to the tibial nerve and superior to the plantaris, and each extra muscle which transitioned to a descending tendon parallel to the plantaris had a cone-shaped belly. However, the tendon of the extra muscles was fused into the investing fascia of the gastrocnemius with a tendon length of 4.5 cm on the left and 4.6 cm on the right. The extra muscles were innervated by the branch of the tibial nerve to the medial head of the gastrocnemius on both sides.

Conclusion

Although they had an origin and shape similar to that of the plantaris, we identified the extra muscles in this case as a third head of the gastrocnemius, because of innervation to the plantaris arises directly from the tibial nerve. This case highlighted that the innervation is essential to understanding the myogenesis of extra muscles, especially in cases which are difficult to categorize based on the morphological features of the muscle.

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Data availability

Please contact authors for data requests (Kyutaro Kawagishi, MD, PhD. Email address: kyutaro@iuhw.ac.jp).

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Funding

This case report did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Basic Medical Science, Graduate School of Medicine, International University of Health and Welfare, 4-3 Kozunomori, Narita, Chiba, 286-8686, Japan

    Takaya Ishii, Kyutaro Kawagishi, Yasutake Mori & Jun Kosaka

  2. Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, School of Medicine, International University of Health and Welfare, 4-3, Kozunomori, Narita, Chiba, 286-8686, Japan

    Takaya Ishii, Kyutaro Kawagishi, Shinnosuke Yamada, Hirotaka Yoshioka, Yasutake Mori & Jun Kosaka

  3. Department of Anatomy, Division of Basic Medical Science, Tokai University School of Medicine, 143, Shimokasuya, Isehara, Kanagawa, 259-1193, Japan

    Shogo Hayashi

  4. Center for Basic Medical Research, International University of Health and Welfare, 4-3 Kozunomori, Narita, Chiba, 286-8686, Japan

    Yoshiharu Matsuno

Authors
  1. Takaya Ishii
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  2. Kyutaro Kawagishi
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  3. Shogo Hayashi
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  4. Shinnosuke Yamada
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  5. Hirotaka Yoshioka
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  6. Yoshiharu Matsuno
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  7. Yasutake Mori
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  8. Jun Kosaka
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Contributions

TI: project development, data collection and management, data analysis and manuscript writing; KK: project development, data collection, manuscript editing; SH: project development, manuscript editing; SY: project development, data collection and management; HY: project development, data collection and management; YMa: project development, data collection and management; YMo: manuscript editing; JK: manuscript editing. All authors have read and approved the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kyutaro Kawagishi.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

The reported cadaver belonged to the Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, School of Medicine, International University of Health and Welfare.

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General consent is confirmed by the living will of the donors.

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Ishii, T., Kawagishi, K., Hayashi, S. et al. A bilateral third head of the gastrocnemius which is morphologically similar to the plantaris. Surg Radiol Anat 43, 1095–1098 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-020-02670-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-020-02670-w

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