Question

Effective auscultation of the lungs relies on knowledge of which which anatomical concept ?

Answer 1

Anatomical landmarks

These are any anatomical features , consistently present in the tissues which serves to indicate specific structure or position .

During auscultation, knowledge of anatomical landmarks is very important .

• The sternal angle or the angle of Louis determines the second intercostal space , so the counting of the intercostal space below the second one becomes easy to identify . This helps in various localisation of pathology of lungs .
• The apex beat lies in the 5th intercostal space ,just lateral to the mid clavicular line . So the person who already knows this will auscultation the apex beat easily .
• There are different division of the lung area - supraclavicular ,infraclavicular , suprascapular ,subscapular etc , thus while auscultation the examiner can know which area is he auscultating .