Planes, Directions and Parts of the Body

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The Anatomical Position

The anatomical position is a standardized position of the body used as a point of reference to avoid confusion when describing parts of the body. A body in the anatomical position is upright, with limbs straight, toes together and hands and palms facing forward.
Anatomical Planes and Sections


A plane refers to an imaginary surface through an object with a specific orientation.
A section refers to a specific 'slice' of the body achieved through a dissection.

There are several different orientations a plane/section may be in. These include:

Median
The median plane refers to a plane which cuts through the centre of the body into left and right halves. The median plane goes through the midline of the body down the spinal cord. The median plane is also known as the mid-sagittal plane

Sagittal
A sagittal plane devides the body into left and right halves.

Coronal or Frontal
the coronal or frontal plane devides the body into front and back halves.

Transverse or Cross
The transverse or cross sections cuts across the body into top and bottom halves, and is perpendicular to the longnitudinal planes (coronal, sagittal and median)

Oblique
An Oblique plane refers to a plane which is neither sagittal, coronal or transverse. atomical position.

Directional terms

Directional terms are used to describe one part of the body in relation to another. These are related to the anatomical position.


Cranial, superior, rostral - Towards the head, or above. These terms are not used with the limbs.

Caudal, Inferior -Towards the feet, or below. These terms are not used with respect to the limbs.

Anterior, Ventral -Towards the front/belly. The term anterior is preferred.

Posterior, Dorsal -Towards the back/spine. The term posterior is preferred.

Medial - Towards the median plane. Medial is not the same as median.

Lateral - Away from the median plane.

Proximal - Towards the point of attachment. Mainly used with the limbs.

Distal - Away from the point of attachment. Mainly used with the limbs.

Superficial - Towards the surface of the body.

Deep - Away from the surface of the body.

Ipsilateral - On the same side as another part of the body.

Contralateral - On the other side of another part of the body.

 Note: most of these terms are used relative to different parts of the body. Eg. The nose is inferior to the eyes.


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