Anatomy of the abdominal viscera: Large intestine
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Anatomy of the abdominal viscera: Large intestine
Abdomen
Anatomy
Abdominal quadrants, regions and planes
Anatomy of the anterolateral abdominal wall
Anatomy of the abdominal viscera: Blood supply of the foregut, midgut and hindgut
Anatomy of the abdominal viscera: Esophagus and stomach
Anatomy of the abdominal viscera: Small intestine
Anatomy of the abdominal viscera: Large intestine
Anatomy of the abdominal viscera: Pancreas and spleen
Anatomy of the abdominal viscera: Kidneys, ureters and suprarenal glands
Anatomy of the abdominal viscera: Innervation of the abdominal viscera
Anatomy of the abdominal viscera: Liver, biliary ducts and gallbladder
Anatomy of the diaphragm
Anatomy of the inguinal region
Anatomy of the muscles and nerves of the posterior abdominal wall
Anatomy of the peritoneum and peritoneal cavity
Anatomy of the vessels of the posterior abdominal wall
Anatomy clinical correlates
Anatomy clinical correlates: Anterior and posterior abdominal wall
Anatomy clinical correlates: Viscera of the gastrointestinal tract
Anatomy clinical correlates: Peritoneum and diaphragm
Anatomy clinical correlates: Other abdominal organs
Anatomy clinical correlates: Inguinal region
Notes
Memory Anchors and Partner Content
Transcript
Contributors
Sam Gillespie, BSc
Alaina Mueller
Patricia Nguyen, MScBMC
The large intestine is a part of the digestive tract specialized in absorbing water from the residual digested food coming from the small intestines, while forming and storing feces until defecation occurs.
The large intestine or colon begins at the ileocecal junction, where it is continuous with the ileum, which is the final part of the small intestine.
There are three main features that distinguish the large intestine from the small intestine - besides the fact that the large intestine has a, well, larger caliber!
First, the large intestine has omental appendices, which present as fatty outgrowths covered by visceral peritoneum.
Second, there are the teniae coli, which are three strips of smooth muscle that run lengthwise from the base of the appendix through the colon and merge at the rectosigmoid junction to form a longitudinal layer around the rectum.
The third and final differentiating feature is that the large intestine has haustra, which are pouch-like bulges of the intestinal wall that form between the teniae when they contract.
The large intestine has several major components: the cecum, appendix, ascending, transverse and descending colon, sigmoid colon, rectum and anal canal.
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- "Gray's Anatomy" Churchill Livingstone (2015)
- "Surgical anatomy and anatomic surgery – Clinical and scientific mutualism" The Surgeon (2013)
- "The ASCRS Textbook of Colon and Rectal Surgery" Springer Verlag (2007)
- "The Digestive System" NA (2010)
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