Anatomy study note · Abdomen

Umbilical cord

The twisted cord joining the fetus to the placenta. It is about 2 cm thick and, at term, about 50 cm long, roughly the length of the baby.

Key points

• 2 arteries (deoxygenated, to placenta) + 1 vein (oxygenated, to fetus).
• Wharton jelly inside, amnion outside.
• ~50 cm long at term.
• Meckel diverticulum = vitelline duct remnant (2%, 2 ft from the ileocaecal junction, 2 in long).
• Cord: 2 arteries + left vein in Wharton jelly.
• Remnants: medial umbilical ligaments, ligamentum teres.
• Wharton jelly = mucous connective tissue.

The full note in the atlas also covers

Features · Histology · Development · Clinical notes

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Written from

• Snell’s Clinical Anatomy by Regions, 10th ed., ch. 6, PDF pp. 751–758
• Inderbir Singh’s Human Embryology, ch. 5, PDF pp. 64–65; ch. 15, PDF p. 275
• BRS Cell Biology & Histology, 7th ed., ch. 6, PDF p. 110

More from the abdomen

• Ureter
• Vas deferens
• Abdominal aorta
• Abdominal lymph nodes
• Appendix
• Ascending colon
• Biliary tree
• Caecum
• Coeliac trunk
• Descending colon
• Duodenum
• Epididymis

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