The pes tendons are the attached tendon of the sartorius, gracilis and semitendinosus muscles, which insert together on the upper tibia on the medial side of the knee.

pes tendons
The name is an abbreviation of 'pes anserine' or 'goose foot' because the combined tendon attachment splays out like a goose foot. Between the tibia and the attachment of the pes tendons is a bursa, which may become inflamed (particularly in swimmers). The one tendon - semitendinosus - is a hamstrings tendon, while the sartorius and gracilis are not.

Harvesting tendons for cruciate ligament reconstruction

In the procedure of hamstrings harvest, the surgeon strips the tendons of semitendinosus (which is one of the hamstrings) and gracilis (which is actually not a hamstring) and combines them to make a quadrupled graft the reconstruct a torn cruciate ligament.

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Synonyms: 
pes anserine tendons
goosefoot tendons
goosefoot bursa
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Dr Sheila Strover (Editor)
BSc (Hons), MB BCh, MBA

See biography...