Directional Terms and Anatomic Planes, Regions, and Quadrants
Learning Objectives
When completing this chapter, the learner will be able to do the following:
- Identify anatomic position and its use in medical terminology
- Define, pronounce, and spell directional terms
- Define, pronounce, and spell anatomic planes
- Define, pronounce, and spell terms used to describe abdominal regions
- Interpret the meaning of abdominal quadrant abbreviations
Introduction
Anatomists and health care providers use terminology for the purpose of precision and to reduce medical errors. For example, is a scar “above the wrist” located on the forearm two or three inches away from the hand? Or is it at the base of the hand? Is it on the palm-side or back-side? By using precise anatomical terminology, we eliminate ambiguity. Anatomical terms derive from ancient Greek and Latin words. To further increase precision, anatomists standardize the way in which they view the body.
