Anatomy, Physiology and Medical Terminology
Anatomical position and directional terms
Anatomy describes structure, physiology describes function. All descriptions use the anatomical position: standing upright, face forward, palms forward. Learn these pairs: superior/inferior (above/below), anterior/posterior (front/back), medial/lateral (towards/away from midline), proximal/distal (nearer/farther from the trunk), superficial/deep. Common planes are sagittal, coronal (frontal) and transverse.
Systems you must recognise
- Skeletal and muscular: support, movement, protection.
- Cardiovascular: heart, vessels, circulation.
- Respiratory: airway, lungs, gas exchange.
- Digestive, urinary, reproductive.
- Nervous and endocrine: control and coordination.
- Integumentary: skin, the first barrier against infection. Homeostasis is the body's steady internal state; vital signs are its visible indicators.
Decoding medical words
Every term has a prefix, root and suffix. Roots: cardi- (heart), nephr- (kidney), hepat- (liver), gastr- (stomach), oste- (bone), derm- (skin), neur- (nerve). Suffixes: -itis (inflammation), -ectomy (surgical removal), -otomy (incision), -ology (study of), -megaly (enlargement), -aemia (blood condition). Prefixes: hyper- (high), hypo- (low), tachy- (fast), brady- (slow), poly- (many).
Worked example
Interpret “hyperglycaemia”. Hyper = high, glyc = sugar/glucose, -aemia = blood condition, so it means high blood glucose. Interpret “gastrectomy”: gastr = stomach, -ectomy = removal, so partial or total removal of the stomach. Note that -otomy (cutting into) is not -ectomy (taking out).
Traps
- Mixing proximal and distal, or medial and lateral.
- Treating “-itis” as infection only – it means inflammation.
- Using ward abbreviations that are not on your hospital's approved list.
- Writing an unapproved abbreviation such as “MS” for a patient, which can mean mitral stenosis or multiple sclerosis.