With 26 bones, 33 joints, 107 ligaments and 19 muscles, the complexity of the foot and ankle region makes it vulnerable to injury, resulting in over one million injuries in the United States each year.
There are three primary parts of the foot:
- Forefoot: phalanges (toes) and metatarsals
- Midfoot: bones that creates the foot’s arches
- Hindfoot: bones that form the heel and the ankle
Similarly, the ankle is made of three main bones:
- Tibia: known as the shin bone, forms the bottom part of the joint on the inside of your ankle.
- Fibula: the thin bone on the outside of your lower leg that supports the tibia.
- Talus: one of the bones in your foot that forms the lower part of the ankle joint, transferring weight from the lower leg onto the foot. This is a part of the hindfoot.
The talus is located directly above the heel bone, known as the calcaneus. These bones are joined together at the subtalar joint, which enables the foot to rotate in both dorsiflexion and plantar flexion movements.
