What does this word mean??? Human Anatomy Terminology

When taking or learning anatomy in your respective school it be high school, a community college, or even a big universities the terms used to describe relations or to identify locations of structure are the universal across the world. In this post I will list a few simple and widely used terms in anatomy classes and publications.

The human body is split in to 3 main planes. To better understand the terms that I will list its important to fist understand the different planes.

1. Sagittal Plane is an imaginary plane that travels vertically, dividing the body into the left and right potions.

2. Coronal Plane is an imaginary plane that travels horizontally, dividing the body into the front (anterior) and back (posterior) portions.

3. Transverse Plane is an imaginary plane that divides the body into the top (superior) and bottom (inferior) halves. The transverse plane travels perpendicular to the sagittal and coronal planes.

Look at illustrations of the planes below for a possible better understanding.

So, now that we know the different plane we can move on to understanding the words of anatomy. Again these terms are used to describe relations to or identify locations of structure.  So the following are the terms:

1. Superior means towards the head or above the transverse plane.

2. Inferior means away from the head or below the transverse plane.

3. Anterior means the front of the body or of a body part.

4. Posterior means the back of the body or of a body part.

5. Medial means towards the midline or the sagittal plane.

6. Lateral means away from the sideline or the sagittal plane.

7. Proximal means closer to the torso.

8. Distal means away from the torso.

Some example of phrases you might hear or read when in class.

“The hand is distal to the forearm.”

“The medial portion of the frontal bone contains the frontal sinus.”

“The ulna is the medial bone in the forearm.”

I hope that this will help you understand anatomy a bit better by understanding these terms.  If you have any question feel free to email me at love89@uab.edu or post a comment on the blog entry. Until next time keep answering the poll questions and keep looking for further posts. Once again thank you for helping in keeping this blog alive.