The Human Medical Longitudinal Arch of Foot and Its Clinical Relevance

Abstract

The medial longitudinal arch plays a pivotal role in proper distribution of bodyweight through the skeleton of foot. The nature has designed the skeleton of foot in such a way that the medial longitudinal arch can be maintained without any external support because of interlocking nature of tarsals. In a normal person, the entire weight of the body rests on the talus from where the weight distributes along the three vectors via calcaneum, 1st metatarsal and 5th metatarsal. In sports, gymnastics, athletics normal medial longitudinal arch of the foot is a pre-requisite. For recruitment in Armed Forces, one of the basic criteria is normal medial longitudinal arch. The fashion technology designs various foot wear for men, women and kids. These foot wares are not essentially comfortable as per anatomical requirement of foot. All these foot wares cause changes in the arches of foot. Considering the functional as well as clinical significance of Medial Longitudinal Arch, the present study has been taken to generate baseline data on its morphology.