Human Anatomy Part 1 - K. A. Dyubenko, A. K. Kolomiytsev, Yu. B. Chaykovsky 2002

General Part
General Information on the Structure of the Human Body
Axes and Planes

When examining human body parts, Organs, and their topography, Axes and Planes oriented in three mutually perpendicular directions are used (Fig. 12B). There are three conventional planes:

1) sagittal plane (from Latin sagitta meaning arrow) — runs longitudinally from front to back, dividing the body into right and left parts;

2) frontal plane (from Latin frons meaning forehead) — runs parallel to the forehead, dividing the body into anterior and posterior parts;

3) horizontal plane — runs horizontally, dividing the body or organs into superior and inferior parts.

Axes are established through these planes: the vertical axis (from top to bottom), the sagittal axis (from front to back), and the frontal axis (from left to right).



Last update: 08/08/2026

Editorial and Educational Adaptation: This material has been compiled based on the primary/original source text. The project team performed an editorial review, corrected technical inaccuracies, structured sections, and adapted the content for an educational format.

What was processed:

  • elimination of formatting defects (OCR errors, structural breaks, corrupted characters);
  • editorial organization of content;
  • standardization of terminology in accordance with academic sources;
  • verification of factual statements against the original source text.

All mentions of the author, publication year, and origin of the primary text have been preserved in accordance with the source.