Superficial and Deep Fasciae of the Lower Limbs

00:01 Now let's have a look at the fascia that is surrounding the lower limb.

00:05 So on the screen at the moment, we can just see the anterior surface of a lower limb, we can see both the right and left lower limbs there.

00:14 And we have the skin which is covering both of them obviously, immediately deep to the layer of skin though, we have a layer of superficial fascia and this really is loose connective tissue.

00:25 There's some fat in there, which obviously varies from person to person.

00:29 And this fascia is made up of that loose connective tissue and fat.

00:33 And it's also pierced by a number of cutaneous nerves and superficial veins.

00:38 So those nerves which are taking sensory information from the surface of the skin on the lower limb penetrate this fascia as they pass back to the nervous system and their parent nerves, and then the central nervous system.

00:52 And they're also pierced by various superficial veins which are draining this region as well.

00:58 Deep to that superficial fascia where you also have some deep fascia.

01:02 And this is very dense connective tissue.

01:04 It doesn't contain any fat and it really does help to keep the muscles very much in position, like a layer of clingfilm tightly wrapped around these muscles to keep them in place.

01:15 Very specifically, we have the deep fascia of the thigh.

01:19 This is a fascia lata.

01:20 We mentioned that briefly in the first lecture when we talked about the tensor fascial lata muscle.

01:26 But this deep fascia is very tight, and that heads around a lot of the muscles within the thigh region.

01:31 We have similar layers around the foot and around the leg.

01:35 And we'll see those as we go through those aspects of the lower limb.

01:38 But essentially a deep, tough, thick layer of dense connective tissue that very much helps to stabilize and keep these muscles in position.

01:48 If we were to have a look at a couple of these, there's a couple of important relationships we need to be aware of.

01:54 And that is partly one of the great saphenous vein because that is an important vein that's draining lots of superficial tissue within the lower limb and it has to pass deep into the femoral vein to take this blood back to the heart for circulation.

02:09 And it does this by penetrating that deep fascia via the saphenous opening.

02:14 So the great saphenous vein and important structure that passes through this fascia as it unites with a femoral vein.

02:20 And it does this by passing through the saphenous opening.

02:24 Mentioned previously, we have the iliotibial tract.

02:27 This sits most laterally, it's a thickened aspect of that deep fascia around the thigh.

02:34 And it's indirect continuation with the tensor fascia lata muscle that I mentioned later.

02:39 When we look at the muscles of the thigh, this sits in the lateral compartment and we can see it's important function there and helping to stabilize the hip joint and the knee joint and keeping us upright as we stand.