ANATOMY

Anatomy is the science that study the living things (the structure of the body).
It derives from the words “ana”- through + “tome”- cut = dissection.
Dissection is the fundamental method for the study of anatomy.
Anatomy is a part (branch) of morphological biology wich studies the forms and the
structures of organism (human body) and also its component parts.
Classification of anatomy
1. From the object of study: vegetable (plant) and animal anatomy.
2. From type of study: descriptive, topographic, functional, pathological, clinical,
comparative, artistic anatomy.
The descriptive anatomy is the study of the tissues and organs and their organization in
systems.
The topographic anatomy studies the parts of different anatomic structures and the
relation between them.
The pathological anatomy is the study of micro and macroscopic transformations in the
organs after some pathologic conditions.
The clinical anatomy : study the practical application of anatomic elements and consists
of clinical exam and therapeutic operation.
The comparative anatomy: compares the structures of anatomic elements in different
species and the similitudes between them.
The artistic anatomy: studies the shape and proportion of the human body.
The conventional ‘anatomical position': standing erect and facing forwards, upper limbs by
the side with the palms facing forwards, and lower limbs together with the toes facing
forwards.

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Descriptions are based on four imaginary planes: median, sagittal, coronal and horizontal,
applied to a body in the anatomical position.
The median plane passes longitudinally through the body and divides it into right and left
halves. It divides the body into medial (closer to this plane) and lateral (further than this
plane).
The sagittal plane is any vertical plane parallel with the median plane, perpendicular on the
frontal and tranverse planes.
The coronal (frontal) plane is the plane parallel with the plane of the forehead and
perpendicular to the transverse plane; it divides the body into anterior (front) and posterior
(back).
The horizontal (transverse) plane is the plane parallel to the ground (support plane). It
divides the body into superior and inferior.
Radiologists refer to transverse planes as (trans)axial: convention dictates that axial anatomy
is viewed as though looking from the feet towards the head.

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Structures nearer the head are superior, cranial or (sometimes) cephalic, whereas structures
closer to the feet are inferior; caudal is most often used in embryology to refer to the tail end
of the embryo.
Medial and lateral indicate closeness to the median plane, medial being closer than lateral: in
the anatomical position, the little finger is medial to the thumb, the great toe is medial to the
little toe. Specialized terms may also be used to indicate medial and lateral. Thus, in the
upper limb, ulnar and radial are used to mean medial and lateral respectively, and in the lower
limb, tibial and fibular (peroneal) are used to mean medial and lateral respectively.
Various degrees of obliquity are acknowledged using compound terms, e.g. posterolateral.
When referring to structures in the trunk and upper limb we have used the synonyms anterior,
ventral, flexor, palmar and posterior, dorsal and extensor: e.g. the extensor aspect of the leg is
anterior with respect to the knee and ankle joints, and superior in the foot and digits; the
plantar (flexor) aspect of the foot is inferior.
Distal and proximal are used particularly to describe structures in the limbs, taking a point as
the attachment of the limb to the trunk (sometimes referred to as the root), such that a
proximal structure is closer to the attachment of the limb than a distal structure. However,
proximal and distal are also used in describing branching structures, e.g. bronchi, vessels and
nerves.
External (outer) and internal (inner) refer to the distance from the centre of an organ or
cavity, e.g. the layers of the body wall, or the cortex and medulla of the kidney.
Superficial and deep are used to describe the relationships between adjacent structures.
Ipsilateral refers to the same side (of the body, organ or structure), bilateral to both sides, and
contralateral to the opposite side.