Background: Currently, different terminology is used for the vessels of the heart in both clinical and basic branches of medicine. This study aims to evaluate the differences in the usage of the term “coronaria” which is used for describing the veins of heart and in the description of the formation of the left main vein of the heart.

Methods: In our study, 32 textbooks and five anatomy atlases which were published between 1951-2007 were examined. Furthermore, the terms which were used in “Nomina Anatomica” published between 1895-1985 and in Terminologia Anatomica published in 1998 were evaluated.

Results: We discovered that the term “coronaria” which was used for the veins of heart was named in different ways in different textbooks. Some books state that the terms “vena cardiaca (cordis) magna and parva” were used in the past, but some different textbooks used both terminologies. However some books do not use the term “vena coronaria”. Anatomy atlases also do not show these vessels as vena coronaria. We also encountered differences in the description of the formation of the left main vein of the heart.

Conclusion: The differences in the terminology (coronaria) which is used for the veins of the heart and the differences in describing the formation of veins cause a dilemma both for the instructors and for the students. Using the same terminology is very important for education.

Keywords : Anatomy; coronaria; heart; terminology