Anatomical Terms and their Derivation (136 pages)

ANATOMICAL TERMS ANDTHEIR DERIVATIONAnatomy is gradually disappearing from the medical curriculum.This is partly because the curriculum is overcrowded and somethinghas to go. It is also because medical education assumes thatanatomy’s main value is for surgery and will be learnt later by beginningsurgeons. Yet anatomy for surgery is, paradoxically, the least of thereasons for doctors to know anatomy. There is, thus, a minor “surgery”of general practice that requires anatomy in situations where it cannotbe“looked up.”The knife for a sebaceous cyst in the neck easily leads toparalysis of the trapezius if anatomical knowledge has gone (or neverexisted). The needle at the elbow or buttock readily causes problemsif the simple anatomy is absent (or has disappeared). Even the finger(touching — palpation) or the eye (looking — observation) mislead ifwhat is under the skin has been forgotten (or was never known).Thus, the use of anatomy is widely misunderstood; it is certainlyfar wider than just surgery. Anatomy helps understand signs andsymptoms. Do we know how the local anatomy of special skin regionsrelates to oedema: swelling of the back of hand and foot in theupright patient, swelling around the eyes in the lying patient, swellingof the genitalia (especially alarming to the patient in a cardiac bed)in the sitting patient? Anatomy is important in clinical tests. Do weunderstand: the opposite side test, pressing in left iliac fossa givingpain in right iliac fossa in appendicitis; the obturator test, flexing andmedially rotating the right thigh causes pain from a pelvic appendixlying on the obturator muscle? Anatomy is important in everythingwe do in medicine. Do we know that accuracy in observation andv