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New definitions

• Mesentery
• Double layer of peritoneum
• Extends to digestive organs from body wall
• Hold organs in place
• Sites of fat storage
• Route by which circulatory vessels and nerves reach organs
• Most are dorsal
• Extend dorsally from gut to posterior (Задней) abdominal wall
• Ventral mesentery – from stomach and liver to anterior abdominal wall
• Some mesenteries are called “ligaments” though not technically such

Mesenteries

• Two ventral mesenteries
• Falciform “ligament”
• Binds anterior aspect of liver to anterior abdominal wall and diaphragm
• Lesser omentum (малый сальник)(=“fatty skin”) – see diagram*
• All other mesenteries are dorsal (posterior)

• *

Mesenteries continued (all these are dorsal)

• Greater omentum (большой сальник)
• Connects stomach to posterior abdominal wall
• Wraps around spleen: gastrosplenic ligament
• Continues dorsally as splenorenal ligament
• A lot of fat
• “Mesentery” or mesentery proper
• Supports long coils of jejunum and ileum (parts of small intestine)
• Transverse (поперечная) mesocolon
• Transverse colon held to posterior abdominal wall
• Nearly horizontal sheet fused to underside of greater omentum
• Sigmoid mesocolon
• Connects sigmoid colon to posterior abdominal wall
• see next slides for pics…

Some organs are “retroperitoneal”

• Are “behind the peritoneum”
• Fused to posterior (dorsal) abdominal wall
• Lack a mesentery
• Include:
• Most of duodenum (1st part of small intestine)
• Ascending colon
• Descending colon
• Rectum
• Pancreas
• Tend to cause back pain, instead of abdominal pain
• (This is as opposed to the organs which are intraperitoneal,
• or just “peritoneal”)