[Contribution to the study of the sensory innervation of the heel]. / Contribution à l'étude de l'innervation sensitive de la coque talonnière.

The purpose of the present work was to contribute to the knowledge of the subcutaneous innervation of the heel. The small branches arising from both tibial and sural nerves below the ankle joint were studied by means of a dissecting microscope; this study was combined with a histological examination of the nerve endings. In spite of many individual variations, it may safely be assumed that the nervus tibialis supplies the plantar area of the heel; thin anastomoses with branches of the sural nerve were found along the lateral aspects of the heel and Achilles tendon. Moreover, based on the density of Pacinian corpuscles, the heel may be divided into three functional areas of increasing sensitivity: the Achilles area, the apex and the bearing area.

The dorsal arterial network of the wrist with reference to the blood supply of the carpal bones.

The gross examination of 50 minium injected specimens showed us the various patterns of the posterior arterial network of the wrist. This is chiefly provided by the radial artery which gives off a constant dorsal carpal branch over the posterior aspect of the trapezium. This vessel crosses the carpus transversely to the inner border of the hand and is joined in half of the cases by the interosseous artery; contribution of the posterior carpal branch of the ulnar artery was more rarely found than usually described (25%). From the arch thus formed are given off short branches which run upwards along the intercarpal joints and enter the posterior aspects of the proximal carpal bones whose lower halves seem to be the most favorably supplied. On the contrary, the distal carpal bones receive several short twigs which penetrate their posterior surfaces. Although the arrangement of the pedicles may undergo many a variation, attention must be drawn to the fact that the dorsal arteries are smaller but denser than the volar, except for the hamate. Therefore 2 different patterns of arterial supply can be described at the carpus: the blood supply of the outer and axial bones--scaphoid, trapezium, lunate, capitate--derives from the radial and the interosseous arteries and is probably shared equally by volar and dorsal branches; the inner bones--triquetrum, hamate--are primarily supplied by volar or medial branches coming almost exclusively from the ulnar artery.