ABSTRACT

THE ANTERIOR ABDOMINAL WALL The anterior abdominal wall is divided, for descriptive and clinical purposes, into nine regions by two horizontal and two vertical planes: horizontal – the subcostal (lower costal margin and lower border of the 3rd lumbar vertebra) and the transtubercular plane (through the tubercles of the iliac crests); and vertical – the right and left lateral planes,

which are extensions of the midclavicular line down to the mid-inguinal points. These define nine regions: centrally from above downwards, the epigastric, umbilical and suprapubic, laterally on each side, the hypochondrial, lumbar (lateral) and iliac regions. The transpyloric plane, which passes through the first part of the duodenum, is midway between the xiphisternum and the umbilicus at the level of the body of the 1st lumbar vertebra posteriorly (Figs. 5.1 and 5.2).