Mr. Ahmadi, an out-of-shape 45-year-old man, was advised by his physician to lose weight and to exercise on a regular basis. He followed his diet faithfully and began to jog daily. One day, while on his morning jog, he heard a snapping sound that was immediately followed by a severe pain in his right lower calf. When his leg was examined, a gap was seen between his swollen upper calf region and his heel, and he was unable to plantar flex that ankle. What do you think happened? Why was the upper part of his calf swollen?

Video transcript

Hi, everyone. Let's take a look at this practice problem together. The achilles tendon is a strong fibrous tissue that connects the calf muscles, gastro neus and soleus to the hill bone calcaneus, which movement is primarily facilitated by the achilles tendon. The answer options are a Dorsey flexion of the ankle b inversion of the foot ce version of the foot and D plantar flexion of the ankle. So first, let's go ahead and go through the answer options and review our terminology. So Dorsey flexion of the ankle is raising the foot towards the shin or essentially pointing toes to the sky. Inversion of the foot is movement of the soul of the foot inwards towards the midline of the body. So, e version of the foot is movement of the soul outwards away from the midline of the body. And plant reflection of the ankle is where the foot is being pulled downwards. The toes are pointed towards the ground as in the action of pushing on a gas pedal. So which movement is facilitated by the achilles tendon on the screen. I am putting up a drawing of a foot. So the achilles tendon is represented by the red line. Now, when the calf muscles contract, they will pull on this tendon upwards. And so the pool is upwards towards the calf muscle. And since the achilles tendon is inserted onto the heal bone, it will pull that heel upwards and conversely, the toes then point downwards. And this is depicted in the second drawing. I am putting on the screen now and this action where the toes are pointed downwards recall as plantar flexion. So the correct answer is option D plantar flexion of the ankle. All right, everyone. I hope you found this helpful and I'll see you soon for the next practice problem.