Standing or lying prone
Ask the patient to wear shorts or roll up long pants and remove shoes and socks.
Posterior to the patient.
The patient may want to rest his/her hands on a plinth, chair, or wall for balance.
Please stand facing away from me (or other position). May I touch the large tendon at the base of your calf? (or point to the area). Please stand up on your toes (or demonstrate).
Guide or ask the patient to stand facing away from you. With the patient relaxed and with permission, place your fingers on the calcaneal tendon (Achilles tendon) in the distal calf. Ask the patient to stand in a plantarflexed ankle posture. This action tenses the calcaneal tendon (Achilles tendon).
The calcaneal tendon (Achilles tendon), the combined tendon of the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles, is easily visible and palpable on the distal superficial leg, as the tendon attaches to the calcaneus. The fibers within this tendon from the medial and lateral heads of the gastrocnemius muscle and the soleus muscle twist, allowing plantarflexion with inversion to occur without any slipping or shearing of the fibers within the tendon. Slipping or shearing would weaken the tendon and provide a mechanism for the tendon to fail.
The calcaneal tendon (Achilles tendon), the combined tendon of the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles, is easily visible and palpable on the distal superficial leg, as the tendon attaches to the calcaneus. The fibers within this tendon from the medial and lateral heads of the gastrocnemius muscle and the soleus muscle twist, allowing plantarflexion with inversion to occur without any slipping or shearing of the fibers within the tendon. Slipping or shearing would weaken the tendon and provide a mechanism for the tendon to fail.
VH - Leg and foot skeleton with Achilles tendon, gastrocnemius and soleus muscles and tendonñ add posterior tibialis, flexor digitorum longus, flexor hallucis longus and peroneus longus and brevis muscles and tendons on one side