Word.ws English Dictionary

Sims position

Sims position noun: a medical position in which the patient lies on the left side with the right hip and knees bent and the left hip and lower extremity straight, often used for rectal and vaginal examinations.

Noun

Sims position (plural Sims positions)

  1. A medical position in which the patient lies on the left side with the right hip and knees bent and the left hip and lower extremity straight, often used for rectal and vaginal examinations.
    • The conventional positions now generally in use in obstetrics are the modified lithotomy position, with the patient on her back, and to a lesser extent the Sims position, wherein the patient reclines on her side, the upper knee being drawn up on the abdomen.1951 February, Forrest H. Howard, “The Physiologic Position for Delivery”, in Northwest Medicine, volume 50, number 2, Portland, Ore.: Northwest Medical Publishing Association, page 98

Forms of Sims position

pluralSims positions
alternative formSims' position

Origin of Sims position

Named after American physician J. Marion Sims (1813–1883).

Questions about Sims position

What does Sims position mean?
Sims position means a medical position in which the patient lies on the left side with the right hip and knees bent and the left hip and lower extremity straight, often used for rectal and vaginal examinations.
What part of speech is Sims position?
Sims position is a noun.
What is the plural of Sims position?
The plural of Sims position is Sims positions.

Words near Sims position in the dictionary

  1. Simpsonwave
  2. simptomatology
  3. simpy
  4. simran
  5. sims
  6. Sims position
  7. Sims positions
  8. Sims test
  9. Sims tests
  10. Sims' position
  11. Sims' positions

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Sims position (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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