The liver sits mainly on the right, and the stomach and spleen in the upper left. The heart lies in the chest with two-thirds of its mass left of the midline. Those are the National Cancer Institute's descriptions, and the body on screen shows each of them. Its organs are solid, its skeleton is glass, and two rows of buttons pick out one side or one level at a time.
Organs by side and level in this body
| Level | Right side | Middle | Left side |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chest | Bronchi | Heart, trachea, esophagus, thymus, bronchi | Heart, bronchi |
| Upper abdomen | Liver, gallbladder, bile ducts, duodenum, pancreas, kidney, adrenal gland, ascending colon, transverse colon, jejunum, ureter | Liver, stomach, pancreas, duodenum, bile ducts, transverse colon | Stomach, spleen, pancreas, liver, bile ducts, kidney, adrenal gland, descending colon, transverse colon, jejunum, ureter |
| Lower abdomen and pelvis | Appendix, ascending colon, ileocecal junction, ileum, ureter | Bladder, urethra, rectum, ileum, jejunum, appendix | Descending colon, ileum, jejunum, ureter |
Every cell is what the finder answers for that pair of buttons. A fourth level, Head and neck, holds the tongue, lips, gums, salivary glands, larynx, pituitary gland and pineal body, all on or near the midline.
Left and right are the body's own. From the front, the body's left is on the viewer's right.
How the finder decides
Each organ is a surface made of thousands of points. The finder counts how many of an organ's points fall in the chosen region and names the organ when the share reaches 18 percent. The middle is a band 3 cm either side of the midline, so the right and left sides begin 3 cm out.
Levels work in two ways. The chest means the organs of the chest cavity: the heart, the airways, the esophagus and the thymus. Height alone cannot separate chest from abdomen, since the dome of the liver rises higher than the base of the heart. The abdomen is split by height, at the disk under the third lumbar vertebra, 105 cm from the floor in this body.
The rule is simple and it runs on one body. An organ near a boundary can fall either way, which is why the appendix shows under both Right side and Middle here.
What lies under the right ribs
Press Right side, then Upper abdomen. Eleven organs stay solid and a sentence names them: the adrenal gland, ascending colon, bile ducts, duodenum, gallbladder, jejunum, kidney, liver, pancreas, transverse colon and ureter.
The gallbladder hides behind the liver from the front, so type gallbladder into the search box and pick it. Its card reads Gallbladder, Digestive system, Liver and bile ducts, with a description and a size of about 5 by 4 by 4 cm. Press Pull it out and the green sac slides clear of the liver, where it can be seen from every side.
Now press Middle as well. The stomach joins the list, since the finder adds regions together when more than one button is on. Reset clears every choice.
Six organs, where they sit and how big they are here
| Organ | Where it sits | Largest dimension in this model |
|---|---|---|
| Liver | Mainly the right upper abdomen, just beneath the diaphragm | 20.9 cm side to side, in eight segments |
| Stomach | Upper left quadrant of the abdomen | 13.4 cm side to side |
| Spleen | Upper left abdomen, beneath the diaphragm and behind the stomach | 9.5 cm front to back |
| Kidneys | Either side of the spine, twelfth thoracic to third lumbar vertebra | 10.6 cm and 10.4 cm tall |
| Gallbladder | Attached to the visceral surface of the liver | 4.8 cm front to back |
| Heart | In the chest, two-thirds of its mass left of the midline | Ventricles 10.2 cm side to side |
The positions are the National Cancer Institute's, from its SEER training modules. The sizes belong to this one body.
Switching organs and systems on and off
The body opens with 133 organ parts in place: the digestive organs, the airways, the kidneys and bladder, the heart with its valves, the spleen, the thymus and four glands. Under Body systems, each can be switched off to see what lies behind it. Switch off the small intestine, for example, and whatever its coils were hiding comes into view.
The skeleton stays as glass for bearings and turns solid with its own switch. Arteries and veins, muscles and the internal male organs can be added the same way. Body outline draws the skin around the whole scene, which shows how deep each organ lies.
What this body cannot show
There are no lung surfaces, only the airways inside them. There is no thyroid gland, no lymph nodes and no female organs. The model has no separate cecum or sigmoid colon. Organs are smooth outer shells without inner layers, apart from the heart.
One adult man's organs are shown. Size and position differ from person to person. The lists are a guide for learning, and they cannot explain a pain. A doctor can examine the real thing.
The organs on the right and left side are set out organ by organ in their own guide, and the abdominal quadrants divide the same ground into four. The full 3D anatomy view opens the same body with all 12 systems, and the 3D skeleton and 3D muscles show what surrounds the organs.