Anatomy study note · Abdomen

Pancreas

A soft, lobulated gland lying retroperitoneally across the posterior abdominal wall on the transpyloric plane. Exocrine part: digestive enzymes. Endocrine part: the islets of Langerhans (insulin, glucagon).

Key points

• Head (in duodenal C), uncinate, neck, body, tail (to splenic hilum).
• Retroperitoneal; crosses the transpyloric plane.
• Main duct + bile duct → major papilla; accessory → minor papilla.
• Pain → back. Head cancer → jaundice.
• Ventral bud: lower head + uncinate; dorsal bud: the rest.
• Acinar cells: zymogen granules. Centroacinar cells start the ducts.
• Islets: α glucagon, β insulin, δ somatostatin.

The full note in the atlas also covers

Relations · Features · Blood supply · Lymph drainage · Histology · Development · Clinical notes

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Written from

• Snell’s Clinical Anatomy by Regions, 10th ed., ch. 7, PDF pp. 920–927
• Inderbir Singh’s Human Embryology, ch. 14, PDF pp. 198–200, 205–206, 224
• BRS Cell Biology & Histology, 7th ed., ch. 17, PDF pp. 307–309

More from the abdomen

• Peritoneum
• Portal vein
• Psoas major
• Pyramidalis
• Quadratus lumborum
• Rectus abdominis
• Renal arteries and veins
• Spleen
• Stomach
• Superficial epigastric vessels
• Superior mesenteric artery
• Suprarenal gland

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