Anatomy study note · Pelvis

Urinary bladder

A muscular reservoir behind the pubic bones holding up to about 500 mL of urine in the adult. When empty it lies within the pelvis; when full it rises into the abdomen.

Key points

• Capacity ~500 mL; reflex at ~300 mL.
• Trigone: 2 ureteric orifices + internal urethral orifice; always smooth.
• Superior + inferior vesical arteries.
• Parasympathetic (S2–4) = empties the bladder.
• Suprapubic puncture avoids the peritoneum.
• Bladder: vesicourethral canal (endoderm). Trigone: mesonephric ducts.
• Ectopia vesicae.
• Empty: dome cells, 5–6 layers. Full: flat cells, 3–4 layers.

The full note in the atlas also covers

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

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Written from

• Snell’s Clinical Anatomy by Regions, 10th ed., ch. 9, PDF pp. 1088–1099, 1110–1112
• Inderbir Singh’s Human Embryology, ch. 16, PDF pp. 277, 285–286, 288
• BRS Cell Biology & Histology, 7th ed., ch. 18, PDF pp. 335–336

More from the pelvis

• Uterine artery
• Uterine tube
• Uterus
• Vagina
• Coccygeus
• Coccyx
• Hip bone
• Internal iliac artery
• Internal iliac vein
• Levator ani
• Ligaments of the uterus
• Obturator internus

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