Lesson 6: Human Anatomy and Medical Terminology

HUMAN ANATOMY AND MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY

In our previous courses, you may have noticed a number of complex anatomy and physiology terms getting tossed around. It’s easy to get flummoxed by med­ical terminology, but as a professional medical coder, you’ll have to develop an easy rapport with this seemingly intimidating subject.

Thankfully, medical vocab is more bark than bite. If you can familiarize your­self with some prefixes, suffixes, and roots, you’ll be well on your way to master­ing the official medical language of the body.

Bear in mind, also, that medical terminology is a part of the CPC exam, which you’ll most likely have to take if you want to become a certified professional coder. You can look at Section 5 for more information on the CPC exam, and for a number of tips on how to study for it.

NUMBERS          Many times you’ll encounter a medical term that contains a prefix that de­

scribes a number. A few of the most common are listed in this table below.

PREFIX	MEANING	EXAMPLE
Mono-, Uni-	One	Unilateral
Bi-	Two	Bilateral
Tri-	Three	Triplicate
Quadr-	Four	Quadriceps
Hex-, Sex-	Six	Hexose
Diplo	Double	Diplococcus

DIRECTIONS & POSITIONS

In medicine, you’ll often encounter terms that describe where a procedure or condition takes place on the body.

PREFIX	MEANING	EXAMPLE
Ab-	Away from	Abduction
Ad-	Toward	Adduction
Ecto-, Exo-	Outside	Ectoparasite
Endo-	Inside	Endoderm
Epi-	Upon	Epinenephrine
Infra-	Below, under	Infrared
Ipsi-	Same	Ipsilateral
Meso-	Middle	Mesomorph
Meta-	After, beyond, transform	Metastasize
Peri-	Surrounding	Peridontal
Retro-	Behind, back	Retrograde amnesia
Sub-	Below	Submandibular
Trans-	Across, through	Transcutaneous

DIRECTIONS & POSITIONS

There are also a number of positional and directional medical terms that are not suffixes or prefixes, but are instead standalone words. Some of the most valuable of these are listed below.

WORD	MEANING	EXAMPLE
Anterior	At or near the front	“Anterior nerves”
or ventral	surface of the body
Posterior	At or near the real	“Dorsal surface
or dorsal	surface of the body	of the hand”
Superior	Above	“Superior (cranial) aspect”
Inferior	Below	“Inferior aspect”
Lateral	Side	“Lateral aspect”
Distal	Farthest from center	“Axons distal to the injury”
Proximal	Nearest to center	“Proximal end of the forearm”
Medial	Middle	“Medial axis”
Supine	Face up or palm up	“Laying supine”
Prone	Face down or palm down	“Laying prone”
Sagittal	Vertical body plane, divides the body into left and right	“Sagittal suture”
Transverse	Horizontal body plane that divides the body into top and bottom	“Transverse myelitis”
Coronal	Vertical body plane that divides the body into front and back	“Coronal suture”

Let’s look now at the basic terms for the regions of the body. These terms will help you navigate the CPT and ICD manuals, decipher doctor’s reports, and give you a more thorough understanding of the medical practice in general.

WORD	BODY PART
Abdominal	Abdomen
Acromial	Point of shoulder
Antebrachial	Forearm
Antecubital	Front of elbow
Axillary	Armpit
Brachial	Arm
Buccal	Cheek
Calcaneal	Heel of foot
Carpal	Wrist
Caudal	Tail
Caphalic	Head
Cervical	Neck
Clavicular	Collar bone
Costal	Rib
Coxal	Hip
Cranial	Skull
Crural	Leg
Cubital	Elbow
Deltoid	Curve of shoulder
Digital	Fingers and toes
Dorsal	Upper back
Femoral	Thigh

BASIC ANATOMY TERMS

WORD	BODY PART
Fibular	Outer side of the lower leg between the knee and ankle
Frontal	Forehead
Genital	Pertaining to the reproductive organs
Gluteal	Buttock
Hallux	Great toe
Inguinal	Groin
Lumbar	Loin (lowest part of the spine below the false ribs and between the hips)
Mammary	Breast
Manual	Hand
Mental	Chin
Nasal	Nose
Nuchal	Back of neck
Occipital	Back of head
Olecranal	Point of Elbow
Oral	Mouth
Orbital	Eye
Otic	Ear

WORD	BODY PART
Palmar	Palmar
Patellar	Patellar
Pectoral	Pectoral
Pedal	Pedal
Pelvic	Pelvic
Perineal	Between the groin and the anus
Peroneal	Outer side of the calf
Plantar	Sole of foot
Pollex	Thumb
Popliteal	Back of knee
Pubic	Groin
Sacral	Between the hips
Scapular	Shoulder bone
Sternal	Breastbone
Sural	Calf
Tarsal	Ankle
Thoracic	Chest
Umbilical	Navel
Ventral	Belly
Vertebral	Spinal Column

CONDITIONS     Now that we’ve taken a look at the terms that describe the major regions of

the body, let’s turn to the conditions that may affect those body parts. Note that there are both prefixes and suffixes listed in this table.

PREFIX	MEANING	EXAMPLE
Ambi-	Both	Ambidextrous
Aniso-	Unequal	Anisocytosis
Dys-	Bad, painful, difficult	Dyslexia
Eu-	Good, normal	Eukaryote
Hetero-	Different	Heterogeneous
Homo-	Same	Homogeneous
Hyper-	Excessive, above	Hypertension
Hypo-	Lack, below	Hypoglycemic
Iso-	Equal, same	Isotope
Mal-	Bad, poor	Malnutrition
Megalo-	Large	Megalomania

CONDITIONS

SUFFIX	MEANING	EXAMPLE
-algia	Pain	Myalgia
-asthenia	Weakness (may also be a standalone term)	Neurocirculatory asthenia
-emia	Blood	Hypoglycemia
-iasis	Condition of	Elephantiasis
-itis	Inflammation	Bronchitis
-lysis	Destruction, break down	Dialysis
-lytic	Destroy, break down	Hydrolytic
-oid	Like	Haploid
-oma	Tumor	Fibroma
-opathy	Disease of	Neuropathy
-orrhagia	Hemorrhage	Metrorrhagia
-orrhea	Flow or discharge	Diarrhea
-osis	Abnormal condition of	Tuberculosis
-paresis	Slight paralysis	Hemiparesis
-plasia	Growth	Achondroplasia
-plegia	Paralysis	Quadraplegia
-pnea	Breathing	Sleep apnea

Let’s wrap up this vocabulary blitz with a look at some of the most common surgical procedures. Since it’s always imperative to list where on the body a surgical procedure was performed, these vocabulary terms are a small but useful addition to this section. Memorize the meanings of these suffixes and you’ll at know instantly what kind of procedure was performed, even if you don’t know exactly what the procedure did.

SUFFIX	MEANING	EXAMPLE
-centesis	Puncture a cavity to remove fluid	Amniocentesis
-ectomy	Surgical removal or excision	Hysterectomy
-ostomy	A new permanent opening	Tracheostomy
-otomy	Cutting into, incision	Gastrotomy
-orrhaphy	Surgical repair or suture	Gastrorrhaphy
-opexy	Surgical fixation	Nephropexy
-oplasty	Surgical repair	Rhinoplasty
-otripsy	Crushing or destroying	Lithotripsy

SURGICAL PROCEDURES

Note that you can also use your CPT manual to study human anatomy vocabu­lary. Current CPT manuals come with instructive illustrations, diagrams, and charts all throughout the book. In the front of the CPT manual, you should be able to find a list of anatomical illustrations. Bookmark this page and refer to it in case you’re looking for an illustration of the eye or inner ear, or need to remember which artery goes where.