Digestive system lecture 16 Flashcards
2 parts digestive system is divided into
alimentary canal
associated organs
alimentary canal
– mouth – pharynx – oesophagous – stomach – small intestine – large intestine
associated organs- digestive system
– teeth – tongue – gallbladder – salivary glands – liver – pancreas
digestive processes
- Ingestion
- Propulsion
- Mechanical digestion
- Chemical digestion
- Absorption
- Defecation
ingestion
– taking food into the digestive tract via the mouth
propulsion
– movement along digestive tract (swallowing, peristalsis)
mechanical digestion
– chewing, mixing with saliva, churning food in stomach, segmentation
chemical digestion
– Enzymatic, beginning in mouth and essentially complete in small intestine
absorption
mainly in the small intestine
defecation
– elimination of indigestible substances
The mouth: muscles of mastication
Temporalis
Masseter
Lateral pterygoid
Medial pterygoid
saliva
• Cleanses the mouth
• Dissolves food so that it can be tasted
• Moistens food and aids compaction
• Contains enzymes that begin breakdown of starch
• Human saliva contains histatins, that speed
would healing independent of antimicrobial
action
salivary glands
• Extrinsic salivary glands
– parotid gland
– submandibular gland
– sublingual gland
• Intrinsic salivary glands (buccal glands)
– scattered throughout oral cavity mucosa
Sjogren’s syndrome
- Chronic autoimmune disease
- Overproduction of B lymphocytes damages moisture -producing glands all over the body
- Effects o n kidneys, lungs, liver and pancreas and CNS
- Teeth often s o soft that patients cannot eat properly
- Characteristic tongue with damaged papillae
bolus
Food compacted by tongue to form bolus
buccal phase
Voluntary; tongue passes bolus into pharynx
Pharyngeal-oesophageal phase
- Involuntary
- Tongue blocks mouth
- Uvula blocks nasopharynx
- Larynx rises; epiglottis prevents food entering trachea
larynx
• Because the respiratory and digestive pathways share a common pathway, it is vital to have a mechanism to prevent
food entering the respiratory pathway
• The epiglottis achieves this
• Normally, the epiglottis is fully open, with its free end projecting upwards
• During swallowing, the larynx is pulled superiorly, tipping the free edge of the epiglottis inferiorly to cover the laryngeal
outlet
• The cough reflex is triggered when anything other than air enters the larynx, but this doesn’t work when we are unconscious
oesophagus
- Muscular tube, 25cm long, collapsed when not involved in food propulsion
- Pierces diaphragm at oesophageal hiatus to enter abdomen
- Joins stomach at cardiac orifice
stomach
- Upper left quadrant of abdominopelvic cavity
- Below the oesophagous, the GI tract expands to form stomach
- Temporary ‘storage tank’ where chemical breakdown of proteins begins
- Food converted to chyme (‘juice’)
- Pyloric sphincter (pylorus = ‘gatekeeper’) controls stomach emptying into duodenum
- Solid food reaches the stomach approx. 8s after swallowing
- Fluids reach the stomach approx. 1s after swallowing
- Food usually spends 4-6 hours in the stomach
liver
- Right and left upper quadrants of abdominopelvic cavity (mainly right)
- Lies almost entirely within rib cage
- Largest gland in body (about 1.5 kg)
- Accessory organ associated with small intestine
- Liver functions include metabolism of carbohydrate, fat and protein, plus mineral/vitamin storage and others
- In digestion, liver excretes bile for export to duodenum
gross anatomy of liver
• the hepatic artery and hepatic portal vein both enter the liver at the porta hepatis
• Hepatic veins exit to inferior vena cava
• Four primary lobes
– large right lobe
– smaller left lobe
– posterior caudate lobe
– posterior quadrate lobe
• Some anatomists consider quadrate and caudate lobes part of the left lobe, since they are – like the left lobe – served by the left hepatic duct
small intestine
- Extends from pyloric sphincter to ileocecal valve
- Digestion is completed
- Almost all absorption occurs
organs associated with small intestine
gall bladder
appendix