Anatomy of the chicken foot for the experimental investigation in flexor tendon surgery.

A chicken model for research in flexor tendon surgery is used despite the considerable differences between avian foot and human hand anatomy. In order to properly correlate and interpret the data collected from such experiments, a reexamination of chicken anatomy and terminology was undertaken. Thirty chicken feet were studied anatomically for tendon-tendon sheath structures including vascularization, flexor systems, and histologic specimens. The data collected show, besides striking similarities between human and avian anatomy, differences critical enough to warrant a reevaluation of previous descriptions of the avian structure.