Posterior Thigh Muscles – Gluteal Region and Posterior Thigh

00:00 So if we?re going to look at these thigh muscles, then posterior to the femur within the thigh, we find these hamstrings, semitendinosus, semimembranosus and biceps femoris, especially the long head, because the short head doesn?t cross the hip joint, it?s not classically termed as a hamstring. We can see these large fleshy muscles, semitendinosus here with its long tendon and the long head of biceps. In this small radical dissection, we can now see semimembranosus and we can see the long head of biceps has been reflected here to reveal the short head. So we can see we have some big bulky muscles in the posterior thigh.

00:46 They originate from the ischial tuberosity, the hamstrings, and they insert on to the tibia and the fibula. So they cross two joints, the hip and the knee. The short head is not a hamstring as it only crosses the knee joint, and it also has a different innervation.

01:02 Remember it?s the common fibula. Blood supply to the hamstrings we?ll look at in more detail in a later lecture, but we did just comment on it previously via perforating branches.

01:15 And these originate from the profunda femoris. This is a branch of the femoral artery, which we?ll look at in more detail in a later lecture. And these perforating branches, they pierce adductor magnus. We can see adductor magnus here. This adductor magnus is pierced by these perforating branches to enter the posterior compartment. But we will cover this in the later lecture. Now let?s turn to the popliteal fossa. This is the important