The sagittal plane, Sagittal section or median plane is one of the reference planes used to locate the structures of the human body. This cut, median plane or plane of symmetry, artificially divides the body into two halves: one right and one left. This reference plane is widely used in studies and anatomical descriptions..
Anatomy is the branch of medicine that is responsible for the study of the structures and different parts of the human body. This discipline uses numerous and varied terms to refer to the structures it studies and the relationships that exist between them..
All anatomical descriptions are generally made in reference to a standard anatomical position, also known as anatomic position:
Besides the anatomic position, Anatomists generally use three reference planes -imaginary and positioned perpendicular to each other- to locate and describe body structures, these planes are the sagittal, the coronal or frontal and the transverse.
The sagittal plane divides the body lengthwise and horizontally into two halves, a right and a left; the coronal plane divides it into a front and a rear portion, and the transverse plane, finally, divides the body horizontally into two halves: one upper and one lower.
The sagittal or median anatomical plane is that imaginary plane that is traced in the human body to divide it into two halves: one right and one left..
It is called 'sagittal' because it is an imaginary "flat surface" that divides the body through the sagittal or interparietal suture of the skull bones (joint with little movement), thus dividing the body into two equivalent halves.
It is also described as a ventrodorsal plane, since it divides the body into two equal parts that retain their dorsal (on the back) and ventral (on the front) surfaces..
It has an antero-posterior orientation, since it divides the body from front to back and, finally, for this same reason, it is described as a plane of horizontal direction.
This plane can be traced through the entire half of the body (mid-sagittal), dividing it into two equal parts, or it can be done in a para-sagittal way, placing the plane away from the midline, dividing the body into two unequal parts..
Like all anatomical planes, the sagittal plane is very useful for analyzing the posture of the body, as well as the structures contained in it and their relationships with the structures that surround it..
It is not only used to divide the entire body, but it is also useful to make descriptions of structures or organs, when these can be imaginatively divided into two equal parts by a ventro-dorsal plane such as the sagittal.
Another important utility of this plane is that of the analysis of body movements, that is, of one bone with respect to another with which it is articulated..
The movements that take place in the sagittal plane are various and include all those that occur from the front to the back and from the back to the front, since this plane divides the body in a ventro-dorsal sense into its entire length. We can point out among these:
In summary, the movements that are analyzed in the sagittal plane correspond to all flexion movements, as well as to the extension movements of the spine, arms, legs and hips..
An example of a sagittal section of the human body can be seen in the first image of this article, at the beginning.
On the other hand, the brain can be analyzed from the perspective of the three reference anatomical planes that we discussed earlier:
A sagittal section of the head looks like this:
Finally, this image shows 6 MRIs with a sagittal plane of the neck area:
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