A 35-year-old runner complains of numbness along the dorsum of the foot with weakness of toe and foot dorsiflexion after wearing tight ski boots. The nerve most likely compressed at the anterior tarsal tunnel is:

• A Sural nerve
• B Superficial peroneal nerve
• C Deep peroneal nerve ✓
• D Tibial nerve

Explanation

The deep peroneal (fibular) nerve passes under the inferior extensor retinaculum at the anterior ankle (anterior tarsal tunnel). Entrapment here causes anterior tarsal tunnel syndrome: weakness of extensor digitorum brevis and extensor hallucis brevis (the only intrinsic dorsal foot muscles it supplies), and sensory loss limited to the first web space (the only cutaneous territory of the deep peroneal nerve on the foot dorsum). In contrast, the superficial peroneal nerve supplies the dorsum of the foot except the first web space, and is purely sensory distal to the knee. The sural nerve supplies the lateral foot/heel. The tibial nerve supplies the sole.

Reference: BD Chaurasia's Human Anatomy, 8th ed.

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Written and medically reviewed by the StethoPrep medical team.