Vastus Lateralis

This anatomy page requires improvement to meet Physiopedia's quality standards. The reasons have been specified below this alert box. Please help improve this page if you can. #qualityalert #qualityalert_anatomy

Original Editor - Your name will be added here if you created the original content for this page.

Top Contributors - Andeela Hafeez, Abbey Wright, Evan Thomas, Joao Costa, WikiSysop, Kim Jackson and Lucinda hampton

Description

The vastus lateralis muscle is on the side of the thigh. This muscle is the largest of the quadriceps group (often called quads) which also includes the rectus femoris, the vastus intermedius, and the vastus medialis. Taken together, the muscles of the legs allow strength and stability. They provide power for and absorb the impact of daily activities such as walking, running, and jumping.

Anatomy

The vastus lateralis is an anterior muscle of the thigh, part of the quadriceps femoris group.

Origin

Upper intertrochanteric line, base of greater trochanter, lateral linea aspera, lateral supracondylar ridge and lateral intermuscular septum

Insertion

Lateral quadriceps tendon to patella, via ligamentum patellae into tubercle of tibia

Nerve Supply

Posterior division of femoral nerve (L3,4)

Blood Supply

      Lateral circumflex femoral artery 

Function

Actions

 extension at knee

can abnormally displaced patella

Functional contributations

In everyday life, the quadricep muscle group as a whole functions to allow a person to squat, bend backwards, walk up or down stairs, and move from a standing to a seated position (or vice-versa). These muscles are not active while standing with the knees locked, but become active during the heel-strike and toe-off phases of walking.

Techniques

Palpation

have client supine

place palpating hand distal to greater trochanter

ask the client to contract quadriceps femoris group 

continute palpating distally towards patella

Length Tension Testing / Stretching

• Standing 

Stand on one leg and pull the other foot up behind your bottom
Keep your knees together and push your hips forwards to increase the stretch
Hold for between 10 and 30 seconds

                                                  

• Laying

Lay on your front and pull one foot up to meet your buttocks
Hold for between 10 and 30 seconds

                                               

Strengthing

• Leg extension

Sit on the leg extension machine with your back against the pad and feet under the pads. Place the pads just above the feet.
Curl the legs up until you reach the top position.
Lower weight back to starting position. Lower legs should be vertical to the floor.

• Hack squats

Lay back in the hack squat machine with shoulders place on the pads.
Place feet about shoulder width apart (or where comfortable) with toes pointed out slightly.
Squat down until there is about a 90 degree angle in the knee joint as shown in the illustration.
Push back up until you are back in the starting position.
Repeat for recommended reps.

Trigger Point Referral Pattern

Pain may be felt over the full length of the lateral anterior (outside and front) thigh as well as behind the knee. Pain is also sometimes reported to feel like explosions up and down the thigh.A person with TrPs in the lateralis may have a stuck patella with pain that wraps up and around the lateral border of the patella and even up the thigh. TrPs in this muscle also make it painful to lie on the affected side and if done so, will disturb sleep.

Management

• A tennis ball may be used by a person to treat their TrPs by laying on the side and placing the tennis ball between the outer thigh and the surface of the bed/floor.
• Release by massage

Recent Related Research (from Pubmed)

Failed to load RSS feed from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/erss.cgi?rss_guid=1-7FJ7kkHKrOcU4ZsOMeCOgQWJBX0bpQKs7bguYF0-19OYxYtR!!|charset=UTF-8|short|max=10: Error parsing XML for RSS

References

References will automatically be added here, see adding references tutorial.