Now we're going to talk about the abdominal pelvic regions. The abdominal pelvic regions divide the abdomen, creating an imaginary tic-tac-toe board. So, if we look at this model here to the right, we can see that on the abdominopelvic region, there are two vertical lines and two horizontal lines creating a Tic Tac Toe board or maybe a hashtag with the navel or the belly button kind of near the middle. Now when you do that, it creates 9 sections, and we said that 9 is more than the 4 quadrants that we learned for the abdominal pelvic quadrants. And for that reason, the abdominal pelvic regions tend to be preferred.
They're more specific. These 9 regions are named for their location, and the naming follows a pattern. First, you want to identify: are you talking about something that's on the right, in the center, or on the left? That's because the left and right are going to have terms that are different from the terms for the center. Next, those terms are going to be based on whether they're located in the top, middle, or the bottom.
Now I said previously, these can be a little bit harder to learn than the quadrants because these names are based on Greek and Latin anatomical terms. Now don't worry too much. You should already know some of these terms. So let's go ahead and take a look. First off, we're going to start on the right or left.
Right or left, you always start with "right" or "left," so you're indicating the side. And then on the top, we're going to call that the hypochondriac region. Now "hypo" means below, and "chondriac" refers to the ribs. So "hypo," even though it's at the top of the regions we're talking about, we're talking about the space just below the ribs. Now, you've probably seen that word "hypochondriac" before, referring to someone who thinks they're sick all the time, even though there's nothing actually wrong with them.
There's a reason for that. A long time ago, we're talking hundreds of years ago, that condition where you think you're sick but you're not, was thought to originate in the hypochondriac region. So, they thought there was something wrong with you just below your ribs. Over time, the name for that region got associated with the condition. So "hypochondriac" means somebody who thinks they're sick when they're not, but the term specifically means the place right under your ribs.
So at the top of your abdominal pelvic region, you have your right and left hypochondriac region. If we go down, we reach the middle, and the middle, we're going to call the right or left lumbar region. That should be familiar. "Lumbar" is your lower back. Right?
Your lumbar region, sort of right here, that's kind of in the middle in terms of up and down of your abdominal pelvic region. So the abdominopelvic region in the middle is the left or right lumbar region. Finally, you reach the bottom, you have the left or right inguinal region. "Inguinal" should also be familiar. "Inguinal" means of the groin.
So, on either side, left or right inguinal region. Going down the middle, we have a different set of terms. At the top, we have epigastric. Now "epi" means above or on top of, and "gastric" refers to the stomach or your intestinal area. So above, on top of your intestinal area, is your epigastric region, right there in the middle.
Going down, we have the umbilical region. "Umbilical" is your navel or belly button. Right? Your belly button's right in the middle. You should be familiar with that word umbilical, right in the middle of your abdominal pelvic region.
And finally, at the bottom, we have the hypogastric region. Well, we said "gastric" refers to the stomach or the digestive organs and "hypo" means below. So, this is going to be below the stomach. So it's right in the middle at the bottom of the abdominopelvic region. Going through them all one more time, we have the right or left hypochondriac region, the epigastric region, the right or left lumbar region, the umbilical region, the right or left inguinal region, and the hypogastric region.
We're going to practice this more in an example below and with practice problems to follow. And I will see you there.