discussion

Sample Student Response

I was assigned to the group to discuss the posterior terms located on page 4 of our text book.  The term posterior refers to the back side of the body.  If an organ, tissue or membrane is behind another it is considered "posterior" (Longenbaker, 2014).  Below is a list of the posterior terms: Cranial = Surrounding the Brain Occipital = Back of the Head Thoracic = Back of Chest Deltoid = Shoulder Vertebral = Spinal Column Brachial = Back of Arm Cubital = Elbow Abdominal = Back of Stomach Lumbar = Lower Back Manus = Back of Hand Perineal = Rectum Femoral = Back of Thigh Popliteal = Back of Knee Sural = Calf Calcaneal = Heel Plantar = Bottom of Foot

I was unable to come up with either an acronym or limerick since there are so many terms.  I chose to use flash cards as a way to learn where each posterior term applies to in relation to the body. Not only is the correct terminology important for medical staff to know but it helps the patient as well.  My surgeon gave me a bunch of big words for why he needed to remove my gallbladder when nothing was wrong with it.  The bigger picture to me was that it needed to come out in order for another problem to be fixed.  Now I know, he had to remove the gallbladder because the part of the liver that he needed to fix was posterior to the gallbladder.  By removing the gallbladder he was able to both see and get to the part of the liver that he needed to.  Another albeit simple reason is so the surgeon doesn’t work on the palmar (front) instead of the manus (back of hand) or on the patellar (kneecap) instead of the popliteal (back of knee).  

Reference

Longenbaker, S. (2014). Mader's understanding human anatomy & physiology, 8th ed. [Part I: HIM205 custom]. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.