Anatomical Position & Directional Terms

Whether you're studying the anatomy of a human body in a textbook, or you're running a patient through the hospital on a stretcher, the same basic theme applies. Location is everything.
In anatomy, everything has a name, and some of those names are similar, or easily confused when a patient's limbs are sprawled on an operating table.
To describe the location of a limb, there are tons of directional terms to apply to an area of the body, when mentioning it in conversation. Here's a list of the most common terms:

Superior/Inferior
towards the head/towards the foot
*Anterior&Ventral/Posterior&Dorsal
towards the front/towards the back
Proximal/Distal
close to origin or attachment/far from origin or attachment
Medial/Lateral
close to **midline/far from midline
Superficial/Deep
close to surface/far from surface
Ipsilateral/Contralateral
on the same side/on the opposite side
Intermediate: in-between

*Anterior and Posterior: different when describing animals. Refers to head and tail, rather than front and back.
**Midline literally is the area covered if a line was drawn from top to bottom, through the middle of the body.

WHY SO MANY DESCRIPTIVE WORDS?
Put your hand above your head. Your hand is now superior to your shoulder.
Then put your hand down at your side.
...now it's inferior.
Whaaaat?!

Different descriptive words serve different purposes. Depending on the body part/area you're referring to, you may only use one or two words, but those descriptions can't be used to decipher EVERY location.


Something to mention: You usually wouldn't use superior or inferior to describe an appendage for that exact reason stated above. More appropriately, you would say that the hand is distal to the shoulder. That way, regardless of its position, it still holds true.

HOWEVER. to make sure that everyone is on the same page when describing the position of an item on the body, whether it be an appendage, organ, wound, etc, there is a universal "anatomical position" that is used for reference, whenever a location is described.

Anatomical Position...
refers to the view of the body in the image above (http://www.mananatomy.com).
Here's a description: Standing, facing forward, arms down to the side, thumbs away from body, palms up, feet together (approximately below the hips). That's it. This is recognized as a standard reference, so at any point that a textbook or instructor refers to a location on the body, you should ALWAYS assume this position (unless they note otherwise of course).

Now, watch this YouTube clip. It's a phenomenal review of all of this information. Ignore the instructors assignment reviewed at the end, unless you'd like extra credit, then by all means, complete the assignment for a total of ten bonus points.

Let's practice:
Directions: By now, you should be a pro. Answer these questions, and--using the terms from above--place as many directional terms in the blank, in order to make the resulting statements valid. On the top of the page, on the right side, you'll find a pages section with the correct answers (Answer Key includes any reasonable possible answer) Use it to check your work! (:

1) feet are _______ to the torso
2) right arm is _______ to the fingers
3) left hip is _______ to the left leg
4) nose is _______ to the ears
5) eyes are _______ to the elbow
6) left wrist is _______ to the left hand

7) small intestine is _______ to the face

8) left foot is _______ to the right foot

9) neck is _______ to the ears

10) shoulders are _______ to the bellybutton