Body Regions & Cavities

Body Regional Terms
The regional terms are used to designate the specific area from the major body divisions as illustrated in figure below.

Figure 1.4 Regional terms used for designate specific body areas

 



 

Anterior				Posterior
Term	Meaning	Term	Meaning	Term	Meaning
Frontal	Forehead	Buccal	Cheek	Dorsum of foot	Back of foot
Facial	Face	Mental	Chin	Occipital	Back of head
Cervical	Neck	Antecubital	Elbow front	Scapular	Shoulder blade
Pectoral	Chest	Pelvic	Pelvis	Vertebral	Spinal
Acromial	Shoulder point	Pollex	Thumb	Lumbar	Lower back
Brachial	Arm	Digital	Fingers/ toe	Sacral	Between hip
Thoracic	Chest	Mammary	Breast	Gluteal	Buttock
Cubital	Elbow	Fibular	Side of leg	Dorsum of hand	Back of hand
Sternal	Breastbone	Hallux	Great toe	Perineal	Between anus and genitalia
Abdominal	Abdomen	Pedal	Foot	Popliteal	Posterior knee
Umbilical	Navel	Tarsal	Ankle	Calcaneal	Heel
Antebrachial	Forearm	Pubic	Genital	Cephalic	Head
Inguinal	Groin	Femoral	Thigh	Otic	Ear
Coxal	Hip	Patellar	Anterior knee	Dorsal	Back
Carpal	Wrist	Crural	Leg	Olecranal	Back of elbow
Palmar	Palm	Nasal	Nose	Sural	Calf
Axillary	Armpit	Orbital	Eye	Plantar	Sole`

Table 1.2 Regional terms and meanings. 

 

 

 



Body Cavities

Cavity is the hollow space or body compartment. The body cavity is divided by two parts which are dorsal cavity and ventral cavity. Dorsal cavity contain cranial cavity and spinal cavity while ventral cavity contain abdominal cavity and pelvic cavity.

Figure 1.5 The body cavities

• Cranial cavity - space in the head that contains brain with cranial bones.
• Vertebral cavity - space containing spinal cords and also the beginning of spinal nerves.
• Thoracic cavity - space that contains pleural and pericardial cavities and mediastinum.
•  Pleural cavity - spaces which each of them surrounds a lung.
• Pericardial cavity - spaces that surrounds the heart.
• Mediastinum - central portion of thoracic cavity between the lungs containing  heart, thymus, oesophagus, trachea, and blood vessels.  
• Abdominopelvic cavity - body compartment that has two cavities as single unit ; abdominal cavity and pelvic cavity.
• Abdominal cavity - hollow space that contains major digestive organs.
• Pelvic cavity - space formed by hip bones & contains reproductive and excretory systems.

 

 

Regions and Quadrants of The Abdominopelvic Cavity

These two standards of terminology universally used by doctors to describe the middle portion of the body (abdominal and pelvic cavities). Figure 1.6 illustrates the abdominopelvic regions and quadrants.

 

Figure 1.6 The abdominopelvic region and abdominopelvic quadrants.

• Hypochondriac region - area of the left and right sides of the body in the part of below of ribs.
• Epigastric region - area of the body immediately above the stomach.
• Lumbar region - area of the left and right sides of the body in part of back between ribs and pelvis.
• Umbilical region - area that surrounds the navel.
• Iliac region - left and right area of the body that located over the hip bones.
• Hypogastric region - area below the stomach.