Body Positions and Directions
To know the relationship of one location of the body to the another, we should understand about body positional and directional terms of Medical terminology. (1) Anterior or ventral:- This position refers to front side of the body. Ex:- chest is anterior to the back. In a human anterior and ventral are the same position, but in four-legged animals anterior refers to front side of the body near the head and ventral refers to the abdomen side. (2) Posterior or dorsal:- Posterior or dorsal refers to the back side of the body. Back is the posterior or dorsal to the chest. (3) Deep:- This refers to away from the surface. Ex:- Bullet went deep into the chest. (4) Superficial:- This refers to on the surface. The shore is on the superficially infected. (5) Proximal:- This position refers to near the point of attachment or near the beginning of a structure. Ex:- The proximal end of the femur attaches with the hip bone. (6) Distal:- This position refers to far f