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Abstract

Ligament, tendon, and fascia are soft tissues composed primarily of collagen fibers. In ligaments and tendons these fibers are organized into roughly parallel bundles to transmit tensile forces between two bones (ligament) or between muscle and bone (tendon). In tendons the bundles are nearly all oriented along the long axis, whereas in ligaments, typically shorter than tendons, the bundles are also generally organized except for bends and twists at insertion sites to bone, e.g. the anterior cruciate ligament in the knee [1]. Fascia, on the other hand, is a sheet of fibrous tissue which encloses muscle. In the leg, fascia lata encompasses the entire thigh musculature and becomes thicker as it progresses distally [2].

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© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Woo, S.LY., Levine, R.E. (1998). Ligament, tendon and fascia. In: Black, J., Hastings, G. (eds) Handbook of Biomaterial Properties. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5801-9_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5801-9_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-412-60330-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-5801-9

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