Question

Imagine you are a nurse working in a surgical theatre, or in imaging. A patient tells you that they have to go in for a scan and that it is " of a longitudinal sagittal section through the left thorax and abdomen midway between the sternum and shoulder"

1. in lay terms describe the orientation of this scan to the patient

2. name as many organs as possible that you could see in this scan

3. furthermore, describe what you would see if the scan was a transverse section through their upper leg(Thigh)

Answer 1

1)Scanning of longitudinal saggital section of the left thorax midway between the sternum and shoulder means that we are viewing the organs in a longitudinal manner from anterior part of the body (front of the body) or from the posterior aspecr of the body(back of the body)

The anatomical position in which the patient should be kept is

Ask the patient to lie down in supine position placing the arms at the side of the body and head ,eye,palm facing forwadly (standard anatomical position)

2)Organ visible are left side of the heart , left lung ,left diaphragm,stomach ,spleen,transverse colon, small intestine ,sigmoid colon

3)Transverse section of the upper leg (thigh) is done to view th structure from anteeior to posterior or from Lateral to medial .

Here we get a circular section of the thigh.

the main structures Anterior to posterior are

Anterior comartment muscle like quadratus(vastus lateralis, vastus medialis ,rectus femoris)

then we can see the cut section of femur bone

followed buy the posterior compartment muscle like biceps femoris,adductor magnus, adductor longus, semimembranosus, semitendinosus.

Adductor canal and the structures in the canal like femoral artery,femoral vein, saphenous nerve can be