Читать книгу Musculoskeletal Disorders - Sean Gallagher - Страница 107

The function of ligaments is to provide support and structure to the joints (while providing some flexibility in joint motion). They also prevent excessive motion and provide feedback on positional information of the joints through sensory endings in the ligaments. Ligaments serve to join two or more bones together; both at rest and during the normal range of motion of the joint in question. Ligaments limit the range of motion through passive stabilization and guiding joints through their normal range of motion under tensile load. Thus, ligaments function to transfer forces from bone to bone in a particular joint, both at rest and during movement, and help to guide motion while providing structural stability to the joint. The range of motion of different joints can vary widely; thus, ligaments can assume a wide variety of shapes and sizes. Ligaments are pliant and flexible, but they also provide strength and support to the joint resulting from forces that may be applied.

Joint ligaments are also highly innervated near the site of attaching tendons and in the outer layer of the joint capsule. This innervation will be discussed further in Chapter 4.