Question

Planes and Quadrants

Why is it valuable to divide the body into imaginary planes and quadrants?

This is for medical terminology class.

Answer 1

PLANE: It is a hypothetical plane used to transect the human body in order to describe the direction of movements or location of structures. In Human Anatomy, there are 3 planes.They are:

1.CORONAL/FRONTAL/LATERAL PLANE: This plane is perpendicular to the ground and bisects the body laterally from side to side and dividing into Front(Anterior/Ventral) and Back (Posterior/Dorsal) halves.

• This plane is parallel to Sagittal Suture.
• Abduction and Adduction movements occur in this plane.

2.SAGITTAL/ANTERO-POSTERIOR/LONGITUDINAL PLANE: This plane is perpendicular to the ground and divides the body into Left and Right halves.

• Flexion and Extension movements occur in this plane.

3.TRANSVERSE/HORIZONTAL/AXIAL PLANE: This plane is parallel to the ground and dvides the body into Cranial(Head) and Caudal(Tail) Portions or Superior and Inferior halves.

• Rotational Movements occur in this plane.

USES:

1. DISSECTION: In Humans, Planes are very helpful in identifying and sstructures related to an organ/Structure and for dissecting the structure in Certain Plane causes no damage to the structures and able to view all parts.In other terms,by using planes we can able to decide the plane of dissection by that we can see various structures that are visible in one plane and not in other plane
2. MOTION: In this the planes are used to describe the axis in which the movement is performed.In Kinesiology / Biomechanics the planes are important because the plane explains the nature of injury because the nature of injury is decribed by direction of force on the movement axis.
3. MEDICAL IMAGING: In this the planes are useful to distinguish the injury and for planning for surgical procedure.In all planes the lesion/Injury cannot be seen sometimes it needs specific view to detect the lesion.

QUADRANTS: The human abdomen is divided into 4 quadrants by 2 imaginary lines drawn one vertically and the other horizontally at umbilicus for diagnostic and studying purposes.The Quadrants are:

1. Right Upper Quadrant: It extends from right of median plane above umbilicus to right rib cage and contains organs like right lobe of liver,gall bladder,part of transverse colon,pylorus,hepatic flexure,right kidney and duodenum.
2. Right Lower Quadrant: It extends from right of median plane below umbilicus to right inguinal ligament and contains organs like cecum,ascending colon,small intestine,appendix,right ureter,right ovary and right fallopian tube(In Women),right spermatic duct(men).
3. Left Upper Quadrant: It extends from left of median plane above umbilicus to left rib cage and contains organs like left lobe of liver,stomach,part of transverse colon,splenic flexure,pancreas,left kidney and spleen
4. Left Lower Quadrant: It extends from Left of median plane below umbilicus to left illiac fossa and contains organs like Left ureter,sigmoid flexure,descending colon,left spermatic duct(In Men),Left ovary and left fallopian tube(In women)

USES:

1. For studying purpose,It is easy to locate the organ.It is useful by identifying the organ based on the quadrant it is present.
2. In Diagnosis, some patients shows pain on palpation and we cannot say the pain is due to which organ damage so simply we describe it as palpation on particular quadrant shows abnormality like pain,swelling...etc
3. The quadrants are also used in Surgical Procedures by planning the incision site,level and length of incision.