Hello all this is Dr Alsup and in this video we will discuss how to identify the contents of the
popliteal or popliteal fossa. And right off the bat let's get oriented. So we are looking at a
posterior view of the knee joint region so you can see a bit of the quadriceps femoris muscle
here, some of the tendon here, and you can see and that will be more anteriorly oriented, and then
right back here in this posterior region you can see some fairly large neurovascular structures,
and these will be the contents or the major contents of the popliteal fossa.
So again the popliteal fossa is in the posterior knee region it is that diamond-like depression in
the back of the knee and the fossa is bounded by muscle tendons of the hamstrings more superiorly
you can see one really well right here as well as the gastrocnemius tendon which has been removed
in this image to really show you how that neurovasculature travels into the leg region. But
our focus is really going to be on these larger neurovascular structures and they're organized in
a pretty typical fashion. So and it's in this order here in this list so from superficial
to deep this is how the structures are organized as I have over here in this list.
Or you can even think of it as from posterior, so the more posterior structures, to the more
anterior structures, either way those are correct ways to kind of think about this.
Okay so the most superficial thing in this region other than say fascia
and some small cutaneous nerves and veins which have been removed in this dissection
is going to be the sciatic nerve and the sciatic nerve is pretty hard to miss
it's that largest nerve of the body. And it will fairly superiorly divide into its two terminal
branches, so you can see right here where it's splitting. The larger and more medial branch is
the tibial nerve which to me is usually one of the most prominent things to see in this region,
oftentimes I get it confused with the sciatic nerve if I haven't found where it branches so it
looks almost like a continuation of the sciatic nerve in many ways and it will continue to run
down the posterior leg as we can see here as it's that dominant supply of the posterior leg.
The smaller and more lateral nerve is the common fibular, often referred to as the common
peroneal nerve, so that will be the more lateral of the two terminal branches.
Intermediate in depth but I would say on the deeper side of intermediate is the popliteal vein,
and deepest of all will be the popliteal artery. And the popliteal artery is so deep
that's literally sitting on the surface of the posterior femur so quite deep so if you're doing
the dissection you need to kind of continue to move through that region in order to get to that.
Now recall that deep veins typically travel in pairs near the artery and sometimes you
see them wrapping around the arteries you can see that happening a little bit right here.
Oftentimes in dissection one will think they have found only one vascular structure
but it really is both the popliteal veins and artery are typically wrapped
together tightly in fascia so sometimes with removal of that fascia you can see
the separate structures of the vein in the artery as has been done in this dissection.
Right at the distal border of the popliteal fossa the popliteal artery divides into its
terminal branches which are the anterior and posterior tibial arteries which will supply
the anterior and posterior compartments of the leg and as this is a posterior view you can see the
posterior tibial artery kind of running down the leg in this region.
The anterior tibial artery kind of goes in front of the interosseous membrane so it's not
quite as visible in this view. Okay so again to review the sciatic nerve and its terminal
branches the tibial nerve and the common fibular or peroneal nerves will be superficially placed
in the popliteal fossa with the popliteal vein kind of intermediate but very close to the deep
popliteal artery. Excellent and those are the contents of the popliteal fossa in a nutshell.
Thank you for your time and attention and I hope you have a great rest of your day