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Introduction

Studying anatomy depends on acquiring the basic anatomical terms and terminology that will
allow you to understand the human anatomy. The most essential anatomical terms needed to be
known is the position of the human body. When examining the human body a standard image
in need in order to eliminate confusion.

The criterion by which the body is to be anatomically positioned is;


1. The person should be standing in an erect (‫ )مستقيم‬position
2. The face facing forward
3. The foot facing forward
4. The limbs by the side of the body
5. The palms (‫ ) باطن اليد‬facing forward

Terms related to position


In an effort of making the description of the human body parts easier, imaginary planes were
created which helps in dividing the body in to several sectors.
• The first sector in known as the Median sagittal plane. This plane goes vertically(
‫ )ييييي‬through the human body dividing it into two equal halves, right and left. Across
this plane or depending on how close a structure is to the plane or far we will use the terms
medial(‫ )اقرب ألى‬and lateral(‫ )ابعد من‬respectively(‫)على التوالي‬.
• The second sector is the Paramedian sagittal plane. The only known criterion for this
plane is that it should be parallel to the median sagittal plane. It divides the body into right
and left parts(‫ )اجزاء‬and not halves.
• The third sector is the Coronal plane. It is at a right angle(90˚) from the medial sagittal
plane thus dividing the body into anterior( ‫ )ييييي‬and posterior( ‫ )يييي‬parts. *Note
that these terminologies are not obsolete(‫مهجور‬:‫)تعبير‬, thus to say a certain structure can be
anterior when compared to another one and can be posterior if compared to one anterior to it.
So, they are mainly comparative(‫ )نسبي‬terms. You need to have two structures to use these
terms.
• The fourth sector is the Horizontal or Transverse plane. This plane divides the body into
an upper(‫علوي‬ ُ ) or superior part and a lower(‫سفلي‬
ُ ) or an inferior part. These parts should be at
right angels with the previous three sectors.

So in general we refer to the structures that are closer to the top of the body as superior and the
ones closer to the lower part of the body as inferior. *The hands have a special terminology;
instead of using interior and posterior to describe the front and back we use palmar and dorsal
respectively. These terminologies will also be followed when describing some of the arteries
and nerves depending on their site of action.
*As far as the paramedian plane is concerned; we have an infinite number of paramedian planes
as the only criterion to it is that it must be parallel to the median sagittal plane.
The foot also follows a different terminology, the superior part of the foot is called the dorsal
surface and the inferior surface is called the planter surface. This is to be well understood as it
will aid in the study of the muscle action i.e. which muscle will act on the dorsal and which on
the planter.

The limbs have exclusive(‫ )حصري‬terms, Proximal(close) and distal(far), depending on how far
or close the structure is to the root(the place where the limb is attached to the body) of the limb.
For example, the humerous bone is proximal to the alna *refer to the slides for diagram*.
Similarly, the alna is proximal to the crpal bones making the carpal bones distal.

Ipsilateral Vs. Contralateral; the term ipsilateral (‫ )تفس المكان‬refers to the structure being
present on the same side of the body. So, when describing two structures as being on the same
side of the body we use the term ipsilateral. For example the liver and the appendix are
ipsilateral because both are on the right side of the body. Contralateral (‫ )مكان مختلف‬carries the
opposite meaning to ipsilateral i.e. the two structures being compared are on opposite sides as in
one is to the left and the other to the right. For example the liver and the stomach are
contralateral because one lies toward the right and the other towards the left.

Superficial Vs. deep; here the comparison is on how close or deep the structure is to the
surface of the body. For example the sternum is in front of the heart there by closer to the
surface of the body hence is superficial(‫ )صطحي‬to the heart making the heart deep(‫ )عميق‬when
compared to the sternum, where as the heart lies for example superficial to the esophagus as the
esophagus is behind it.

Internal Vs. external; here we are comparing between structure within certain organs or body
cavities. For example the arteries have two branches. The one going inside is referred to as
being internal and the one going outside as being external.

Supine Vs. Prone; when a structure is referred to as being supine it means it is at the posterior,
back, of the body. Prone means the structure is at the anterior, front, surface of the body.

Terms related to movement


Terms related to movement help us in describing movements done by the human body. These
movements are usually done at a site known as joints. *But not all joints are sites of movement.

Flexion Vs. Extension; Flexion is the term used to describe the movement in which the angle
at a joint is decreased. Extension is the opposite i.e. increasing the angle at a joint. Both
movements occur at the sagittal plane. Most of the time flexion occurs in an interior movement
*not all the time for example to increase the angle at the knee joint the leg must move
backward but it still occurs in the sagittal plane.
Abduction Vs. Adduction; Abduction is the movement of the limb away from the body.
Adduction means moving the limb closer to the human body. Both these movements occur in
the frontal plane. These terminologies can also be applied to the movement of the fingers i.e.
when the fingers are drown (‫حبوا‬
ِ‫س‬ُ ) away from each other they are said to be abducted and vice
versa (‫ )العكس‬is adducted.

Rotation refers to the movement of a part of the body around its own axis(‫)اي بشكل دائري‬.
According to the human body this rotation could be lateral or medial. If the rotation is towards
the medial sagittal plane it will be known as a medial rotation. If it is away from the medial
sagittal plane it will be know as a lateral rotation.

Circumduction is a composite(‫ )متعدد‬movement i.e. it contains more than one component. It


contains flexion, extension, abduction and adduction.

Supination Vs. Pronation; Supination is when moving the hand in such a way that the palmar
surface is facing forward i.e. the hand is on its back. The reverse(‫ )العكس‬is known as pronation.

*The movement of the trunk of the body is known as the lateral flexion of the trunk. This is a
special case in which only the trunk moves laterally but the rest of flexions occur in the sagital
plane of the body.

The movement of the foot is described in two terms. Inversion is when the planter surface, also
known as the soul of the foot, moves medially. Eversion is when the soul of the foot is moving
laterally.

Fasciae

Fasciae is a connective tissue that can be either superficial as in the layer underlining the skin
(subcutaneous tissue) or deep. It is made of looses areolar tissue and adipose tissue. Upon
dissection it cannot be distinguished from the adipose tissue beneath the skin due to their
similarity especially in obese (‫ )بدين‬people. This superficial fasciae has variable composition in
different body parts. Some times it is form in numerous bundles of collagen due to that certain
body part being subjected to a lot of friction like the heart valves. In other parts there is no
adipose tissue. So in the human body variation is the rule.

*Q: Which tissue does not have adipose tissue???


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The deep fasciae is a membranous layer that invests around deep structures i.e. it goes around
the details of the structures in other words, wraps (‫)يلتف حول‬. *To distinguish it you need to
scratch the muscle surface as it is a transparent layer. The deep fasciae can be either in the form
of well defined layers or a thin film of areolar connective tissues or a definite sheath around
deeper structures. Also sometimes it will be used to form restraining (‫ )ُمقيد‬banes called
ritinacula. Ritinacula helps binding tendons together. The deep fasciae can also help in the
determination of the path of infection of a certain tissue because of its strapped banner structure.
This is because pathogens have an affinity towards fasciae hence we can follow their path on
the fasciae covered infected region.

Muscle
Cardiac muscles are involuntary muscles and are supplied by the autonomic nervous muscle.
Skeletal muscles help in producing movements and are voluntary i.e. they are subjected to our
conscious control as in for example, you aware when you move your hand. As the name
indicates skeletal muscles are attached to the skeleton and that is done by tendons. It is a rope
like structure made of connective tissues. The attachments of the muscle to the bone are known
as origin: the one that moves the least and insertion: the one that moves the most. The fleshy
part of the muscle where the meat resides is known as the belly. The belly does not attach to the
bone directly it is again attached through two types of tendons either an aponeurosis: a wide
sheath of connective tissue or a raphe: an interdigitation of tendinous ends of fibers(‫اربطة‬
‫)متداخلة‬.

*Q: How is the skeletal muscle innervated???


Ans: It has mixed innervations; it receives motor sensory and autonomic sonamic fibers.

These terms are related to the shape of the muscle fibers. The fibers within each muscle could
be either parallel to the line of pull (the line of pull means the tendon that attaches the muscle to
the bone) or could run obliquely (‫ )اي ليس بتساوي‬to the line of pull. Muscles whose fibers run
obliquely to the line of pull are referred to as pinnate muscles. If the oblique run is only from
one side it is called a unipinnate. If it is from two sides it is known as bipinnate and if it is
from all the sides we call it a multipinnate. If we are going to compare muscles whose fibers
run oblique to muscles whose fibers run horizontal we notice that these muscles have more
fibers per boning unit therefore more power but the range of movement is less so we sacrifice
the range of movement to get further contracting power.

In skeletal muscles for a given movement a certain muscle could be a prime mover which
means it is the principal muscle thus responsible for performing that movement or it could be an
antagonist a muscle that contradicts (‫ )ُيناقض‬that same movement.
^For example, the knees joint the muscles that coordinate its movement are the quadriceps
femoris muscle and the biceps femoris muscles. If we want to extend the knee joint the prime
mover is the quadriceps femoris muscle because it is the one responsible for performing the
movement but the biceps femoris muscle is the antagonist because it contradicts the movement
of the quadriceps femoris muscle in order to prevent it from over extending the joint which
could break\fracture it. Thus the antagonist is a muscle that balances the action of a prime
mover making sure it is not over done. If the case is the flexion of the knee joint the roles will
be reversed.

Fixator muscle is the muscle that stabilizes the origin of the prime mover so that it can act
efficiently.
Synergist prevents the unwanted movements of intermediate(‫ )متوسط‬joints. Sometimes a muscle
in your arm would be giving tendons to the tip of your fingers so, that tendon passes through
several joints but the wanted order is to only move the finger; this is where the role of a
synergist muscle comes where it stabilizes the intermediate muscles through which that tendon
passes to only make the finger move and not every joint in the same path.

Joints
*Q: What is a joint???
Ans: Joint is a site where two bones meet whether (‫ )بغض النظر‬movement occurs or not.

Joints can be classified as fibrous joints, cartilaginous joints or synovial joints.

*Q what is the criteria of this classification???


Ans: It depends on the type of tissue that comes between the two bones that makes the joint.

Fibrous joints are known so because of the fibers present between the bones at that joint.
Cartilaginous joints are known so because of the presence of cartilages. There are two types of
cartilaginous joints, primary cartilaginous joints: there is no movement what so ever at that
joint because it occurs only in young bones during development and secondary cartilaginous
joints: it has fibrocartilage with some degree of movement like in the intervertibular disc
(between vertebral bones). In synovial joints we have a sack of connective tissue that lies
between the two joints which is present in a closed membrane. A fluid is present in order to
support the friction (by lubrication) (‫ )تلين‬that will occur due to the high degree of free motion.
So by default the structure of synovial joints allows high degree of free movement. The only
limitation to the movement is 1-shape of the bone that articulate (‫ )يبين حد الشكل‬with each other,
2-adjacent (‫ )ييييي‬anatomical structures and 3-the presence of fibrous ligaments.
KEY

*- important note
^- not to memorize but just understand
???- important questions

Script prepared by: Mohamed “Harun” Sanoh

THE END

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