L1.6: Body Planes and Sections

• When preparing to look at the internal structures of the body,

  medical students make a section, or cut. When the section is

  made through the body wall or through an organ, it is made

  along an imaginary line called a plane. Because the body's

  three-dimensional, we can refer to three types of planes or

  sections that lie at right angles to one another.

  Planes and sections
• Planes and sections

  • Sagittal Section
  • Midsagittal/median
  • Parasagittal
  • Frontal Section – Coronal
  • Transverse Section – Cross
• • Cut along lengthwise dividing the body into left or right parts.
  • Midsagittal – Median: left and right are equal parts.
  • Parasagittal: all other sagittal sections


  Sagittal section
• Cut along lengthwise that divides the body into anterior and posterior parts,


  front section - coronal
• Cut along a horizontal plane, dividing the body into superior and inferior parts.


  transverse section - cross
• 1. sagittal
  2. lateral
  3. medial
  4. frontal/coronal
  5. anterior
  6. posterior
  7. transverse
  8. superior
  9. inferior

  A) 1

  B) 2

  C) 3

  D) 4

  E) 5

  F) 6

  G) 7

  H) 8

  I) 9