I am a pre-med student at Rutgers University and am also enrolled in a Surgical Technology program. I am learning about "Anatomical Directions" and don't quite understand it. When I felt that my instructor's explanation might have been off I decided to get a second opinion.
The question is: When is it appropriate to use the directional terms "Proximal" and "Distal"?
When my instructor explained it to us she used the following example: "If a patient says that they have pain in the area that is said to be the left hypochondriac region, then you can say that the pain is 'distal' to the umbilical region." She even drew a compass rosette and marked P and D diagonally to the right as if they are directions.
What I understood from the book is that proximal is toward or nearest the trunk of the body. For example my knee lies at the proximal end of my tibia while my foot lies at its distal end. I assumed that when we used anatomical directions to pinpoint something in a cavity (as her was locating the pain in the abdominal cavity), that we would use "Median and Lateral".
Thank you for your time 🙂
The question is: When is it appropriate to use the directional terms "Proximal" and "Distal"?
When my instructor explained it to us she used the following example: "If a patient says that they have pain in the area that is said to be the left hypochondriac region, then you can say that the pain is 'distal' to the umbilical region." She even drew a compass rosette and marked P and D diagonally to the right as if they are directions.
What I understood from the book is that proximal is toward or nearest the trunk of the body. For example my knee lies at the proximal end of my tibia while my foot lies at its distal end. I assumed that when we used anatomical directions to pinpoint something in a cavity (as her was locating the pain in the abdominal cavity), that we would use "Median and Lateral".
Thank you for your time 🙂