Anatomical Planes Of The Body

Anatomical Planes of the Body

Second, you will consider the planes of the body. Understanding these will facilitate learning terms related to position of structures relative to each other and movement of various parts of the body.

FRONTAL (or coronal) separates the body into Anterior and Posterior parts

MEDIAN (or midsagittal) separates body into Right and Left parts

HORIZONTAL separates the body into Superior and Inferior parts

SAGITTAL any plane parallel to the median plane anatomical planes

After taking a look at the Anatomical Planes, you can then view some of the terms related to the planes. These are listed in the following tables. You will notice that most of these are in pairs of opposites.

Terms of relation or position

superior (closer to the head) inferior (closer to the feet) reference point -- horizontal plane

posterior (dorsal) closer to the posterior surface of the body anterior (ventral) closer to the anterior surface of the body reference point -- frontal or coronal plane

medial (lying closer to the midline) lateral (lying further away from the midline) reference point -- sagittal plane

proximal closer to the origin of a structure distal further away from the origin of a structure reference point -- the origin of a structure

Superficial Deep reference point -- surface of body or organ

Median reference point -- along the midsagittal or median plane Intermediate

between two other structures External Internal

refers to a hollow structure (external being outside and internal being inside) Supine Prone

face or palm up when lying on back, face or palm down when lying on anterior surface of body

Cephalad

Caudad

toward the head, toward the tail (feet)

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