Anatomy study note · Abdomen

Descending colon

About 25 cm long, it runs down the left side from the left colic flexure to the pelvic brim, where it becomes the sigmoid colon. Retroperitoneal.

Key points

• Splenic flexure → pelvic brim; retroperitoneal.
• Left colic + sigmoid arteries (IMA).
• Parasympathetic from pelvic splanchnic nerves.
• Hindgut; Hirschsprung disease.
• Colon: no villi, many goblet cells.
• Outer longitudinal muscle → teniae coli → haustra.

The full note in the atlas also covers

Relations · Blood supply · Nerve supply · Lymph drainage · Histology · Development

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Written from

• Snell’s Clinical Anatomy by Regions, 10th ed., ch. 7, PDF pp. 870–871
• Inderbir Singh’s Human Embryology, ch. 13, PDF pp. 184, 187
• BRS Cell Biology & Histology, 7th ed., ch. 16, PDF pp. 296–297, 297

More from the abdomen

• Duodenum
• Epididymis
• External oblique
• Gallbladder
• Iliac arteries
• Iliacus
• Iliohypogastric and ilioinguinal nerves
• Inferior epigastric vessels
• Inferior mesenteric artery
• Inferior vena cava
• Inguinal ligament
• Internal oblique

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