a fellow participant, click the title of the initial post, then click Reply. 1)

Question

a fellow participant, click the title of the initial post, then click Reply. 1) a. How do we communicate location on the human body, and why is it not feasible to simply use the terms "up/down" and "above/below? b. Why is important that medical terminology is consistent and uniform throughout the world? 2) Choose any two positional or directional terms and use them in two different sentences. For example, Supine: The patient was placed in the supine position. Superficial: The wound was superficial stions Forum If you have a question about the

Explanation / Answer

1. a. Using the anatomical terms for identifying and describing the location and direction of the organ in the human body helps in precise and exact description as well as identification. Using words like up or down and above / below may result in ambiguity as they indicate too general sense of expression and do not have exact location identification as they are vague terms . This situation can be made easy with anatomical terms.

For example, if we say pancreas are above the duodenum, it doesnt make complete sense as it fails to give the exact coordinates of the organ location. The anatomical description for pancreas location will be Pancreas is superior to duodenum c- loop and inferior to liver, superior duodenum where its head is medial to duodenum and tail is anterior to splenic vein, left kidney.

Thus, anatomical description gives precise location like latitude and longitude on the map without ambiguity.

b. The medical terminology is consistent and uniform all through out the world which enables physicians and other health care members to communicate in same expression and avoids any ambiguity during the course of diagnosis and treatment. If the terminology is not uniform, there are high risk chances of wrong identification of the parts and their location due to their local understanding of the language and may result in the principal error of treatment.

For example, while writing the description of an organ, usually it is written according to the anatomical position of the body which means the patient is a mirror image of the physician making the left of the patient look as right of the patient. If this practice is not universally followed or consistent it may result in differential diagnosis and treatment risking the patient life not because of treatment but just because of failure of identification. Hence, it is important to maintain universal and consistent medical terminology all throughout the world.

2. Using directional terms examples:

The mouth is inferior to the nose.

Lungs are superior to the diaphragm.

The navel is located on the anterior surface of the body.

A person lying face up is in the supine position

A person lying face down is in the prone position

Ribs are present superficial to the lungs.

Skeleton is present deep to the skin

Right lung and Left lung are contralateral to each other.

The right arm and right leg are ipsilateral to each other

The knee is proximal to the ankle

The ears are lateral to the nose

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