Clinical Anatomy 3:79-80 (1990)

Editorial Some Changes in Anatomical Nomenclature

T h e names used in anatomy are subject to change, as approaches, concepts and taste evolve. T h e International Anatomical Nomenclature Committee is the body entrusted by the 5-yearly International Congress of Anatomists to produce a standard, interna- tionally accepted list of terms and names. This list, called Nomina Anatomica, provides a systematic listing of anatomical names in Latin. Anatomists of each language group are, however, free to use either the Latin terms (e.g. articulatio genus) or the vernacular translation or equivalent (e.g. knee joint). Similarly, subcommittees of the IANC produce the Nomina Histologica and Nomina Embryologica, while there is also a Nomina Veterinaria.

Such attempts to achieve international standardisation of anatomical names go back at least to the famous Bask Nomina Anatomica (BNA) of 1895. Between the two world wars, two major attempts were made, namely the Birmingham Revision of BNA (BR) in 1933 and the Jena Nomina Anatomica (JNA) in 1936.

T h e first edition of the current series ofNomina Anatomica was published in 1955 and the latest available edition is the fifth (Warwick, 1983).’ A sixth edition is at present being prepared under the editorship of Professor Roger Warwick of London.

T h e following are some of the more important recent changes. Most of these emerged in the fifth edition ofNomina Anatomica,’ although some are of older origin but have been tardily adopted.

T h e term omentam is widely used, whereas epiploon is unfamiliar to most anatomists and students. Hence, epiploic has now been replaced by omental: the epiploic foramen has become the omental foramen and the gastro-epiploic vessels are now known as the gastro-omental vessels.

Long overdue for a change has been the name of the ischiorectal fossa. This pair of fossae lies in relation to the anal canal rather than the rectum, but the old name ischiorectal fossa is a reminder of the time when the anal canal was considered a part of the rectum. This was pointed out as long ago as 1963 in the first edition of Man’s Anatomy by Tobias and Arnold,‘ and in all subsequent editions of that work, and it was there suggested that ischio-anal fossa would be a more appropriate name. T h e latter term is now the official name of the fossa.

There is a tendency to replace the name ‘lien’ bysplen for the spleen and structures related to it. Thus, lieno-renal ligament has become splenorenal ligament; and the gastrolienal ligament is the gastrosplenic ligament.

Reproduced from the South African Medical Journal of 4 March, 1989, with kind permission of the publisher.

Published by Wiley-Liss, Inc., 1990

80 Tobias

Foramen transversarium is the rather cumbersome name which had been introduced for the aperture in the transverse processes of cervical vertebrae. T h e term has now been replaced by foramen of the transverse process.

In the developing lower jaw bone, the symphysis menti is now known as the symphysis mendibulae.

T h e innominate bone, as Tuttle3 has recently pointed out, lost its anonymity in 1895 with the adoption of the BNA! T h e officially recognised terms for that bone are oscoxae or hipbone orpelvic bone, yet the innominate name has lingered on in recent writings. T h e present writer has been guilty of this lapse. Following Tuttle’s plea, we should abandon the term innominate forthwith.

Anatomists and clinicians have long spoken of the anterior fornix, lateral fornices and posterior fornix of the vagina. Yet, fornix means an arch or vault and there is clearly only one fornix of the vagina, not four fornices. Hence the latest, correct terms are anterior portion, lateralportions and posteriorportion of the fornix. That is, there are four named parts of a single vaginal fornix.

In the hypophysis or pituitary gland, part of the adenohypophysis or anterior lobe extends up in front of the infundibulum towards the tuber cinereum of the hypo- thalamus. T h e name of this extension has been changed several times, but it is now happily reverted from pars infundibularis to its former name, pars tuberalis.

In the leg, there is a tendency to replace peroneal by fibular. Thus, the common peroneal nerve has become the common fibular nerve; we now speak likewise of the superj5czal and the deepfibular nerves, while the peroneal artery has become the fibular artery.

All of the above nomenclature changes have been incorporated in the new fourth edition of Man’s Anat~my.~

Doubtless further changes will appear when the forthcoming sixth edition ofNomina Anatomicas makes its appearance, probably later this year. One term which is likely to make a welcome return is coqusperinealis or perineal body (as used by gynaecologists), as suggested by Warwick in the fifth edition to replace the rather clumsy centrum tendineum perinei (tendinous centre of the perineum). An injunction that is frequently sinned against is to use the term calvaria for the braincase: all too frequently, and especially by physical anthropologists, this is spoken of as calvarium. Yet calvaria (plural, calvariae) has been the correct, internationally accepted term at least since the first edition of Nomina Anatomica and for a long time before that.

P.V. Tobias Department of Anatomy

University of Witmatenrand Johannesburg, South Africa

REFERENCES 1. Wanvick, R., ed. 1983 Nomina Anatomica. 5th ed. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins. 2 . Tobias, P.V. and M. Arnold 1963 Man’s Anatomy. 1st ed. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand

3. Tuttle, R.H. 1988 T h e hipbone and Nomina Anatomica. Am. J. Phys. Anthrop.,

4. Tobias, P.V., M. Arnold, and J.C. Allan 1989 Man’s Anatomy. 4th ed. Johannesburg:

5. Wanvick, R., ed. 1989 Nomina Anatomica. 6th ed. (in press).

University Press.

77:133- 134.

Witwatersrand University Press.