A 24-year-old female received a small-caliber bullet wound to the popliteal fossa from a drive-by assailant. The patient was admitted to the emergency department, where the surgeons recognized that the bullet had severed the tibial nerve. Such an injury would most likely result in which of the following?
A severe injury of the tibial nerve in the popliteal fossa would result in a dorsiflexed and everted foot because of the intact muscles of the extensor (anterior) and evertor (lateral) compartments of the leg. It would result also in some weakening of knee flexion because of loss of the gastrocnemius muscle, which flexes the knee and plantar flexes the foot. The hamstrings also flex the knee, so this function would not be lost. Plantar flexion at the ankle would be paralyzed with the loss of the gastrocnemius and soleus, in addition to the flexors of the toes, and inversion by the tibialis posterior. Foot drop results from loss of the anterior compartment, innervated by the deep fibular (peroneal) nerve.
Inability to extend the leg at the knee
Foot drop
A dorsiflexed and everted foot
A plantar flexed and inverted foot
Lower Extremity