Anatomy study note · Abdomen

Peritoneum

The serous membrane lining the abdominal and pelvic walls (parietal peritoneum) and covering the viscera (visceral peritoneum). The potential space between them is the peritoneal cavity, closed in males but open to the exterior through the uterine tubes in females.

Key points

• Greater sac + lesser sac, joined by the epiploic foramen.
• Epiploic foramen: front = bile duct, hepatic artery, portal vein; back = IVC.
• Intraperitoneal: stomach, jejunum, ileum, spleen. Retroperitoneal: pancreas, ascending/descending colon, duodenum (2nd–4th parts), kidneys.
• Mesentery root: left of L2 → right sacroiliac joint.
• Greater omentum localizes infection.
• Peritoneum: lateral limbs of the intraembryonic coelom.
• Lesser sac: right pneumato-enteric recess.
• Peritoneum: mesothelium (simple squamous).

The full note in the atlas also covers

Features · Nerve supply · Histology · Development · Clinical notes

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Written from

• Snell’s Clinical Anatomy by Regions, 10th ed., ch. 7, PDF pp. 805–828
• Inderbir Singh’s Human Embryology, ch. 14, PDF pp. 196, 212–218
• BRS Cell Biology & Histology, 7th ed., ch. 5, PDF p. 86; ch. 16, PDF pp. 289–290

More from the abdomen

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

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