One of the enduring memories from my first year of medical school in the late 1970s
was a series of lectures given by a visiting professor of anatomy. He had an accomplished
career documenting some of the many anatomic variants seen in autopsy studies. His
talks were given as we progressed through our gross anatomy dissection, to provide
a flavor for the potential surprises we might find. The number and breadth of these
aberrations in human structure really fascinated me. As a neophyte to the world of
medicine, I was absolutely amazed that human anatomy could contain so many inartful
discrepancies. So much for the perfection that one might think a God would master
in creating us in his or her image! As with many other areas of life, human anatomy
is filled with imperfections, errors that range from mild to ghastly. Some so derange
the machinery of the body that they are incompatible with life, but we learn to live
with a number of less serious hiccups. Those that do not ordinarily interfere in a
significant way with the essential functions of the human body are described as variant
anatomy. Alterations in structure that commonly lead to significant functional impairment
or disease processes are more properly described as pathology.
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: March 24, 2022
Footnotes
Funding: None.
Conflicts of Interest: None.
Authorship: The sole author is responsible for all content.
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© 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
