Anatomical Terms: Position, Directional Terms, Planes

Anatomical position

Standing

Face forward

Arms to side

Palms facing forward

Fingers fully extended

Thumbs separated from other fingers (away)

Feet separated

Toes point forward

Superior/cranial/cephalic

Towards head (ex. chest is superior to navel)

Inferior/caudal

Away from head (ex. navel is inferior to chest)

Posterior/dorsal

From the front to the back of the body (heart is posterior to the pectoral muscles)

Anterior/ventral

From the back of the body to the front (remember: “Abs are Anterior”, “ventral” means belly)

Proximal

Closest relative to the object being referred to (this primarily refers to limbs. ex. the forearm is proximal to the hand)

Distal

Farthest relative to the object being referred to (think DIStal, DIStant; also primarily limbs)

Superficial/external

Nearest to surface (ex. papercut was superficial to skin)

Deep/internal

Farthest from surface (ex. the bullet wound was deep to the skin)

Medial

Towards midline of body (think the sagittal plane!)

Lateral

Farther from the midline (think lateral raises)

Intermediate

Between 2 structures; the knee would be intermediate between the hip and ankle)

Sagittal plane

Splits body vertically in half

Parasagittal plane/longitudinal

When the body is split vertically into 2 unequal left and right sections

Midsaggital plane

When the body is split vertically into 2 equal left and right sections

Frontal/coronal plane

Divides into anterior and posterior sections (“coronal” is Latin for “crown”)

Transverse plane

Divides horizontally into superior and inferior sections (cross section of the human body)

RUQ

Right Upper Quadrant; to the left and up relative to the belly button

LUQ

Left Upper Quadrant; to the right and up relative to the belly button