Ligament · Hand

Superficial transverse metacarpal ligament

A row of transverse fibres lying just under the skin at the bases of the fingers, spanning one web space to the next. It belongs to the palmar aponeurosis rather than to the skeleton and has no bony attachment anywhere along its length, so it travels with the skin of the webs instead of anchoring them down to bone. Its older name, natatory ligament, borrows the image of a swimmer's web; in practice it is the fibrous check on how widely the fingers can be spread. The digital nerves and arteries run deep to it on their way out to each finger, so it lies between the surface and the neurovascular bundles of the web.