The unsung virtues of ligaments.

Modestly laboring behind the scenes, ligaments are often overlooked or disdained while attention focuses on muscles, vessels, and nerves, the dynamic actors on center stage. Yet this attitude held by surgeons and anatomists alike is both naive and wrong. Ligaments are often more important than muscles, and in some places where muscles are given the credit, unassuming ligaments carry the entire burden of responsibility. But since their demands are small, we dent to overlook their virtues.