Dr. Allan Horowitz, published newspaper article, Richmond Hill Liberal, Copyright March 21, 1990
As a continuation of last week’s column on terminology, today’s column will deal with the various parts of the body and how they are, or should be, described.
Olecranon fossa is actually the ‘front part’ of the elbow. Popliteal space is actually the back part of the knee. The axilla is really the armpit. The buttocks should be used when describing pain in the ‘bum’, ’butt’, ‘seat’, or ‘rump’.
However, the buttocks refer to the large group of muscles at the top of the back part of the thigh – the connectors between the back of the thigh and the lower back.
HIP BONE
The ‘hip’ is actually on the side of the upper thigh, where the little bone sticks out to the side in the area of your pockets.
The groin is where the inside of the upper thigh attaches to the pelvis. The scrotum is the ’sack’ which holds the testicles.
The ankle is that which attaches the foot to the lower leg. The shin is the hard bone in the front of your lower leg.
The leg is actually from your knee to your ankle, while the thigh is from your hip to the knee.
The patella is the kneecap, which is the little bone on the top of your knee.
Your lower back should be referred to as the lumbar area, and it can be considered to run from the lowest ribs down to the buttocks in the back.
In the front, this same area can be called the abdomen.
The thoracic area is the middle part of the back which has ribs on both sides.
This area in the front houses the lungs and should be called the thorax.
The cervical spine is the neck, from the head down to the large bump on the back of your neck, just at the top of your shoulders.
Your shoulders are the movable joint at the top of your arm, not the upper back where the muscles attach up into the neck. Your arm actually only runs from the shoulder to the elbow.
Your forearm runs from the elbow down to the wrist.
Your wrist attaches your forearm to your hand.
These are all pretty basic, right?
No!
CORRECT LANGUAGE
Very often a doctor goes wrong because a patient wasn’t speaking the correct language. I often listen to a patient complain of ‘hip’ pain. I naturally check out the hip. After I have done every test in the book to try to find out what is causing this patient’s ’hip’ pain I declare that there isn’t really anything wrong with their hip.
It is then that they tell me I have been poking in the wrong area and it is really lower down and more to the back’ that it hurts and they then point to their buttock.
Just a slight misunderstanding, but also a waste of time.
TWISTED ANKLE
I was playing baseball about 10 years ago and being the superstar that I am, I was positioned out in right field. I ran over and into a hole in the field, twisted my ankle and ended up limping off the field. I went to the hospital and explained to the doctor in emergency that I think I broke my ankle.
I heard a pop and I was in severe pain.
He x-rayed the ankle and told me nothing showed up. So it must be a sprain. Even though I was only a student at the time and wasn’t too knowledgeable, I did know a sprain and I did know a fracture – and this was a fracture.
JUST A SPRAIN
I insisted that he look again. He checked the x-rays again and told me to go home and ice it as it must just be a sprain. I wouldn’t leave until he found the fracture.
He asked me to point to where the pain was. I pointed to my distal tibia, just above the malleolus.
This is actually my lower leg, just above the ankle. He then exclaimed “that isn’t your ankle. That is your lower leg.” He then x-rayed my lower leg and found the fracture I knew was there.
What had happened the first time was the x-ray technician didn’t include enough of my lower leg in the first set of ankle x-rays and the fracture was missed.
See, a problem of terminology.
So now when you go to your doctor or chiropractor with a pain or other problem, you will now be well versed in some terminology you might use.
Last week you learned how to describe where the problem is in terms of exact location - i.e., outside, inside, upper, lower, etc.
DOWN THERE
Today you learned what your leg is and what your axilla is. When you have a pain in your scrotum, say that you have a pain in your scrotum. Not all doctors know what you mean when you describe your pain as being ‘down there.’