In anatomy and physiology, you'll learn how to divide the abdomen into nine different regions or four different quadrants. If you plan to enter a healthcare profession such as nursing, this is something you'll use on the job when performing abdominal assessments and while documenting. First, let's take a look at the four quadrants, which are created by an intersecting horizontal plane, also called the transumbilical plane, and a median plane. The four quadrants are easy to remember because they consist of a left upper quadrant, left lower quadrant, right upper quadrant, and right lower quadrant. Now there are two important things you'll want to remember when dealing with the four quadrants.
The first thing is that the navel or belly button is the major landmark in determining where the four quadrants are located, because again, this is the point where those two planes intersect, which create the four quadrants. The second thing you'll want to remember is that right and left are from the perspective of the person in the anatomical position. So when you're looking at it, a lot of times it'll look flipped or backwards, and that will throw a lot of people off. So always remember, this will be the right upper quadrant, this will be the right lower quadrant, this will be the left upper quadrant, and this will be the left lower quadrant from the anatomical position. Now let's take a look at some of the major organs in the four quadrants.
In the right upper quadrant, we see the liver, the stomach, the gallbladder, the duodenum, the right kidney, the pancreas, and the right adrenal gland. In the left upper quadrant, we have the liver, stomach, pancreas, left kidney, spleen, and the left adrenal gland. The right lower quadrant contains the appendix, reproductive organs, and the right ureter. And the left lower quadrant contains the left ureter, reproductive organs, and all four quadrants, as you can see here, contain portions of the small and large intestines.
Now let's talk about the non-abdominal regions. And these regions divide the abdomen into even smaller sections by using two parasagittal planes that run down the middle of the clavicle bone, also called midclavicular planes, and two horizontal or transverse planes. The superior transverse plane is called the subcostal plane, and it is located just below the ribs.
The intertubercular plane is the inferior transverse plane, and it intersects the tubercles of the pelvis running just inferior to the navel. Now it is important for you to know the names and locations of these non-abdominal regions, so here are some tips for remembering them. First, let's cover the right and the left columns because they have the same exact name, it's just that one will be a left side and one will be a right side. And these are unique because the regions on the side are named after the bones that they are closest to. So first let's talk about the left and right hypochondriac region.
The prefix hypo means below or under. And the word chondriac means cartilage, which is referring to the cartilage of the ribs. So when we put the name together, we have the abdominal region that is under the ribs.
Easy. Next, we have the left and right lumbar regions. And the word lumbar is referring, of course, to the lumbar vertebrae in your lower back, kind of between the ribs and the pelvis.
And this is going to be nearest that side portion right there. So that's why they call it the lumbar region. Next, we have the left and right iliac region.
And the top of the hip bone has what's called the iliac crest. And that's what this region is closest to. It's closest to the hip bone where that iliac crest is, and so they call it the iliac region.
Now that's pretty simple, and that takes care of the left and right columns. But now let's look at the abdominal regions in the center column. And unlike the regions on the side, these center column regions are named after their location relative to the stomach, not the bones. So first we have the epigastric region.
And the prefix epi means above or over and gastric means stomach or belly. Therefore, when you put the name together, this is the region over and above the belly. Next, we have the umbilical region and this is really easy to remember because this contains your navel which is also called the umbilicus. And again, when you think about the four quadrants, the navel is the point where those two planes intersect. Well, in the nine abdominal regions, the navel is going to be located within that center region.
So that will help you remember the umbilical region. And then finally, we have the hypogastric region. And we've already learned that hypo means below or under, and gastric refers to the stomach or belly.
So when we put the word together, we know that the hypogastric region is below the belly. Now if you need a quick memory trick to keep these regions straight in your mind, remember that for either of the side columns, we have hypochondriac, then lumbar, then iliac. So we have an H, an L, and an I.
And then in the middle region, we have epigastric, umbilical, and hypogastric. So we have an E, a U, and an H. And I just remember this sentence.
Hector loves Isabel every unceasing hour. I love a good love story. Now let's take a look at some of the major organs that you'll find in each of the nine regions.
And in most basic anatomy courses, professors probably don't expect you to memorize a whole list of organs that you'll find in each region. but you do need to have a general understanding of where these major organs are located in the grand scheme of things. So for the right hypochondriac region, you'll find organs such as the liver, gallbladder, right kidney, and portions of the small and large intestine.
In the epigastric region, you'll find portions of the liver, as well as the stomach, pancreas, duodenum, spleen, and adrenal glands. In the left hypochondriac region, you'll find the spleen, the large and small intestines, the left kidney, pancreas, stomach, and tip of the liver. In the right lumbar region, you'll find portions of the ascending colon, small intestine, and the right kidney.
In the umbilical region, you'll find the duodenum, the small intestine, as well as the transverse colon. In the left lumbar region, you'll find parts of the descending colon, the small intestine, and the left kidney. In the right iliac region, you'll find the appendix, the cecum, the ascending colon, and the small intestine.
In the hypogastric region, you'll find the bladder, portions of the sigmoid colon, the small intestine, and reproductive organs. And in the left iliac region, you'll find parts of the sigmoid colon, the descending colon, and the small intestine. Now you can take our free quiz to test your knowledge over this subject by clicking the link in the description below.
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