L8 Peritoneal Reflections

Question 1

What organs have a mesentery?

Answer 1

Anything that needs to change size or be mobile, has a mesentery. A mesentery therefore allows the tube to be longer than the body wall allows it to be. But due to the mesentery, we still have contact with the body wall.

The colon and the small intestine have a mesentery.

Question 2

Give an example of an organ that is secondarily retroperitoneal?

Answer 2

Duodenum

Question 3

What is the greater and lesser sac?

Answer 3

The stomach rotates 90 degrees clockwise. As it rotates the attachments rotate with it. This means the liver is pushed to the right hand side and the spleen to the left. The peritoneal sacs that were on the right and left are pulled anterior and posterior. The greater sac is pulled anteriorly and the lesser sac posteriorly to the stomach.

Question 4

What is the difference between the ventral and dorsal mesentery?

Answer 4

Ventral mesentery
 – foregut only.
Free lower border
midway along
duodenum

Dorsal mesentery
extends whole length
of developing gut

Question 5

What are parabolic gutters?

Answer 5

The paracolic gutters (paracolic recesses) are spaces between the colon and the abdominal wall. These gutters are clinically important because they allow a passage for infectious fluids from different compartments of the abdomen.

Question 6

What is the lienorenal ligament?

Answer 6

Posteriorly, the lienorenal ligament/splenorenal ligament attaches the spleen to the kidney.

Question 7

What is the gastrosplenic ligament?

Answer 7

The gastrosplenic ligament attaches the spleen to the stomach.