Introduction to Anatomy

Objectives

Define the anatomical planes and describe the anatomical positions. Label general muscular and bony anatomy. Describe the functions of skin, bone, muscle, ligament, tendon, and cartilage. Describe the types of bones and give examples Describe the classification of joints and explain the types of motion produced.

What is Anatomy?

The science of how the body is organized, concentrating on bones, joints, muscles, and organs, their kinds and arrangements.

Anatomical Positions
To improve communication between health care professionals and to facilitate a better understanding of human movement, medical professionals have accepted a particular alignment of the body as standard. These are called anatomical position.

This refers to an erect stance, arms at the sides, and palms facing forward.

How does the body move?

The body moves in three planes:

Frontal Sagittal Transverse

Common Medical Terms of Location Anatomical positions

You will need to know several common medical terms that help health care providers explain to one another where an injury is located on the body. Anterior Posterior Medial Lateral Proximal Distal Superior Inferior Dorsal ventral

Anterior
Anterior refers to the front of the body. When you face an athlete, you are looking at the athletes anterior aspect. If you were to read an injury report stating that an athlete was hit at the anterior aspect of the lower leg, you would know that the front of the leg was injured.

Posterior
Posterior refers to the back of the body. When you watch an athlete walk away from you, you are looking at his posterior aspect. If an athlete indicates that the back of her k nee hurts, the athletic trainer would report that the posterior aspect of the knee was injured.

Medial/ lateral
The terms medial and lateral are defined in relation to the sagittal plane, shown the figure below. This imaginary line divides the body into left and right halves and is also called the midline of the body.

If a body part faces the midline it is said to be medial, and if it is closer to the midline than a different body part, is said to be more medial.
Thus, when you look at the side of an athletes calf that faces the other leg, you are looking at the medial aspect. If a body part is located away from the midline it is said to be lateral, and if it is farther form the midline than another part, it is more lateral. Your left ear is lateral to your left eye.

Proximal

Proximal means toward an attachment, such as where a limb attaches to the trunk of the body. Thus, the shoulder is proximal to the elbow, and the hip is proximal to the knee.

Distal
Distal means away from an attachment. The knee is distal to the hip A fingertip joint is distal

Superior
Superior refers to one point, or structure, being higher than another. For example, the knee is superior to the ankle.

Inferior
Inferior refers to one point, or structure, being lower than another. Example, the pelvis is inferior to the ribs

Dorsal / Ventral

The terms dorsal and vbentral are synonymous with the terms posterior and anterior respectively.
Often referenced to hand and foot.

Ventral refers to the anterior aspect of a structure. Dorsal refers to the posterior aspect of a structure.

Superior
Superior means close to the bodys surface. Deep means away from the bodys surface.

Body Tissues
Athletics-related injuries typically involve injuries to the skin, bones, cartilage, muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Before we can understand the specific injures that occur to these tissues, we must first understand the basic function of these structures.

Skin
Skin is the outermost surface of the body. It provides the first line of defense against external forces such as insects, air dirt, bacteria, and blows. The skin keeps bodily fluids in It picks us sensations It secretes an oily substance

The skin is made up of several layers.

The most superficial layer is called the epidermis.
The epidermis is thin and connects to the thicker dermis layer that is just below it.

Below the dermis is the hypodermis

The hypodermis is not technically considered part of the skin, but it helps to hold the skin to underlying bone and muscle tissue. The hypodermis is sometimes called the subcutaneous layer and is responsible for storing about 50 percent of the bodys fat.

Skin has the ability to expand

Example: skin expands to accommodate an increase in muscle girth (the distance around a body part) from weightlifting. Stretch marks are lines on the skin where the dermis was stretched excessively until elastic fibers ruptured.

Bones

Bones have three primary functions.

1. They protect vital organs and structures from trauma. Consider the brain. It is packaged in a hard shell (the skull) filled with fluid (cerebral spinal fluid), which helps to absorb shock and protect the brain. Similarly, the lugs and heart are surrounded by the rib cage, which supports and protects them. 2. Bones are the stiff structures that are acted on by muscles to create movement. 3. Bones are metabolically active; that is, they produce blood cells and store minerals such as calcium and phosphorus.

Bones also protect the nerves and blood vessels that travel alongside them. The human body has approximately 206 bones and an astounding number of muscles. The skeleton is categorized into the axial skeleton, which includes the bones of the spine, thorax, and skull, and the appendicular skeleton, which includes the bones of the extremities.

Bones come in several shapes and sizes

LONG (like femur)
Possess an interesting feature. At the end of each long bone is an area where growth takes place, called the growth plate.

SHORT (metacarpal) FLAT (scapula) IRREGULAR (vertebrae)

Cartilage
Cartilage covers the ends of long bones and can be found between bones. It typically functions to join structures (for example, the ribs and sternum0, absorb shock, and permit smooth bone movement.

Muscles, Tendons, and Ligaments

Muscle contractions allow the body to accelerate, decelerate, stop movement, and help to maintain normal postural alignment. They produce heat. Ligaments and tendons are both composed of connective tissue. Tendons attach muscle to bone and transmit the force that a muscle exerts. Ligaments connect bones and help to form joints.

Classification of Joints

There are three classifications of joints:

Diarthroidial Amphiarthrodial Synarthroidial

Diarthroidial
Also known as synovial joints. Have fantastic mobility and consist of a joint capsule (as sleeve like ligament that surrounds the entire joint) A synovial membrane (a slick lining on the inside of the capsule), Hyaline cartilage (a thin layer of cushioning at the ends of the bones), and ligaments. Diarthrodial joints are divided into several tuypes, including hinge and multi axial joints.

Examples of hinge joints are the elbow and the kene. Examples of multi axial joints are the hip and shoulder. These joints can be moved in multiple directions . The shoulder and hip joints are also commonly referred to as balland-socket joints, that is, the end of the long bone is rounded like a ball and is set into a cuplike socket of the other bone.

Amphiarthrodial

Amphiarthrodial joints are those that have cartilage attaching two bones together.
Example, is found where the ribs join the sternum.

Synarthrodial Joints
Synarthrodial Joints are also called fibrous joints. Held together by tough connective tissue, and the joints are basically immovable. This type of joint joins the bones of the skull and the tibia and fibula of the lower leg.

Movement
Without muscles, the body would not be able to move. An understanding of general muscular anatomy is essential for proper assessment of an athletic injury and proper rehabilitation following an injury.

Axis

An axix is an imaginary line around which a segment such as an arm or leg rotates.

Flexion (of a hinge joint)-the bending of the joint. Extension-Anatomical position

Abduction-movement of a body segment away from the midline. Adduction- Returning in toward the midline .

Pronation- A movement that turns th palm of th hand downward as iif it were emptying a bowl of soup. Supination- A movement that turns the palm of the hand upward as if it were holding a bowl of soup.

Inversion and Eversion

Inversion-occurs when the sole of the foot is turned inward. Eversion-occurs when the sole of the foot is turned outward.

Protraction / Retraction

Protraction-occurs when a segment glides forward

as when the lower jaw pushes outward until the chin sticks out.

Retraction- is the gliding a segment backward.

The scapulae squeeze together.

Rotation

Rotation-occurs when a bony segment spins or turns on an axis.

Example of rotation is turning your head to look over your shoulder.

Circumduction

Circumduction-occurs when a ball-andsocket joint, such as the shoulder or hip, encompasses several directions with one movement. In doing so, the joint is moved in a cirucular fashion around its axis.

Anatomy Terms _____________________________________________________________________________________________ AbductionAdductionAmphiarthrodial jointAnatomical positionAnteriorAppendicular skeletonAxial skeletonBall-and-socket jointCircumductionDeepDiarthroidial jointsDistal dorsalEpidermisEpiphysisEversionExtensionFibrous jointsFlexionFrontal planeGirthHinge jointHyaline cartilageInferiorInversion Joint capsuleLateralLigamentsMedialMultiaxial jointPosteriorPronationProtractionProximalRetractionRotationSagittal planeSuperficialSuperiorSupinationSynarthrodial jointsSynovial membraneTendonsTransverse planeVentralWhat are the three anatomical planes of the body? How does the function of a ligament differ from that of a tendon? Give two examples each of a long bone, and irregular bone, and a flat bone in the body. Describe a synovial joint and give two examples.