Medical Terms

        There are many different things you can talk about when you are going over the organizational levels of the body.  But mostly I'm going to focus on the planes and sections of the body.  In anatomy the body is usually sectioned along a flat surface called a plane.  Sagittal, frontal, and transverse are the most known.  The first plane I'm going to talk about is the sagittal plane, it is a vertical plane that divides the body into right and left parts. A sagittal plane that lies exactly in the midline is the median plane or midsagittal plane. Other sagittal planes that do not lie in the midline are known as parasagittal planes.  Frontal or coronal- divides the body into anterior and posterior parts. (Anterior is the forward part of the body for example the face and nose.  Posterior is the back of the body for example the butt.) Transverse or horizontal is also known as a cross section.  It divides the body into inferior and superior parts. (Superior is up. Inferior is down towards the feet.)  The last one is an oblique section. It cuts the body diagonally.  Other terms to know are superficial and deep.  Superficial means on the surface and deep means within.   Medial means toward or at the midline of the body; on the the inner side of. For example the heart is medial to the arm.  Lateral is the opposite of Medial.  Lateral means away from the midline of the body; on the outer side of.  An example of lateral would be: the arms are lateral to the chest.  Intermediate is like medial and lateral put together.  The definition of intermediate is between a more medial and a more lateral structure.  Another directional term is proximal.  Proximal means closer to the origin of the body part or the point of attachment of a limb to the body trunk.  An example would be: the elbow is proximal to the wrist.  The opposite of proximal is distal.  Distal is farther from the origin of a body part or the point of attachment of a limb to the body trunk.  An example would be: the knee is distal to the thigh.   The last thing to know when putting the body in planes or sections is the anatomical position.  The anatomical position means that body erect, feet slightly apart, palms facing forward, and the thumbs point away from the body.