Sitting or lying supine
Ask the patient to wear shorts and remove shoes and socks. Palpation on the skin is possible by lifting long pants above the ankle.
Anterior to the patient.
Please sit. May I touch the top of your foot? (or point to the demonstrated area). Please bring your foot up and out (or demonstrate). (If needed, hold this position while I try to push your foot down and out.)
Guide the patient to sit. With the patient relaxed and with permission, place your fingers on the dorsum of the foot and ask the patient to bring the foot up and out. Move your fingers to a small tendon on the lateral side of the tendon of the extensor digitorum longus to the 5th toe. The tendon may be palpable and not visible and it may not be present.
VH - Leg and foot skeleton with peroneus tertius tendon ñ add anterior tibialis, extensor hallucis and digitorum longus muscles and tendons and superior and inferior retinacula on one side