Anatomical plane

An anatomical plane is a hypothetical plane used to transect the body, in order to describe the location of structures or the direction of movements. In human and animal anatomy, three principal planes are used: The sagittal plane or lateral plane (longitudinal, anteroposterior) is a plane parallel to the sagittal suture. It divides the body into left and right. The coronal plane or frontal plane (vertical) divides the body into dorsal and ventral (back and front, or posterior and anterior) portions. The transverse plane or axial plane (horizontal) divides the body into cranial and caudal (head and tail) portions. There could be any number of sagittal planes, but only one cardinal sagittal plane exists. The term cardinal refers to the one plane that divides the body into equal segments, with exactly one half of the body on either side of the cardinal plane. The term cardinal plane appears in some texts as the principal plane. The terms are interchangeable. In human anatomy, the anatomical planes are defined in reference to a body in the upright or standing orientation. A transverse plane (also known as axial or horizontal plane) is parallel to the ground; it separates the superior from the inferior, or the head from the feet. The transverse planes identified in Terminologia Anatomica are the transpyloric plane, the subcostal plane, the transumbilical (or umbilical) plane, the supracristal plane, the intertubercular plane, and the interspinous plane. A coronal plane (also known as frontal plane) is perpendicular to the ground; it separates the anterior from the posterior, the front from the back, and the ventral from the dorsal. A sagittal plane (also known as anteroposterior plane) is perpendicular to the ground, separating left from right. The median (or midsagittal) plane is the sagittal plane in the middle of the body; it passes through midline structures such as the navel and the spine. All other sagittal planes (also known as parasagittal planes) are parallel to it.