Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The retroperitoneal space (retroperitoneum) is the anatomical space (sometimes a potential space) behind (retro) the peritoneum. It has no specific delineating anatomical structures. It has no specific delineating anatomical structures.
The retroperitoneum or retroperitnium is an anatomical region that includes the peritoneum-covered organs and tissues that make up the posterior wall of the abdominal cavity and the pelvic space - which extends behind to the abdominal cavity. Definitions vary and can also can include the region of the wall of the pelvic basin.
The interior is called the peritoneal cavity, this is the location of all 'intra-peritoneal' organs (disambiguation: retro-peritoneal organs). The most inferior extent of the peritoneum covers the pelvic inlet ; in females, this region of the peritoneum is referred to as the 'broad ligament'.
Peritoneal recesses (or peritoneal gutters) are the spaces formed by peritoneum draping over viscera. [1]The term refers mainly to four spaces in the abdominal cavity; the two paracolic gutters and the two paramesenteric gutters.
The asymmetry within the abdominal cavity, caused by the position of the liver, typically results in the right kidney being slightly lower and smaller than the left, and being placed slightly more to the middle than the left kidney. [10] [11] [12] The left kidney is approximately at the vertebral level T12 to L3, [13] and the right is slightly ...
The peritoneal cavity is widely used in intraperitoneal injections to administer chemotherapy drugs, [5] [6] and is also utilized in peritoneal dialysis. [7] An increase in capillary pressure in the abdominal organs can cause fluid to leave the interstitial space and enter the peritoneal cavity, resulting in a condition called ascites.
Bile, pus, or blood released from viscera anywhere along its length may run along the paracolic gutter, and collect in sites quite remote from the organ of origin. [2] In supine patients, infected fluid from the right iliac fossa may ascend in the paracolic gutter to enter the lesser sac.
They blend into the surrounding tissue and are fixed in position (for example, the retroperitoneal section of the duodenum usually passes through the transpyloric plane). The retroperitoneal regions include the oral cavity, esophagus, pylorus of the stomach, distal duodenum, ascending colon, descending colon and anal canal. [citation needed]