Organization of the Body: Abdominopelvic Cavity - Video Tutorials & Practice Problems
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Organization of the Abdominopelvic Cavity
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Finish up the organization of the anterior body cavity. We're gonna be talking about the membranes and cavities within the abdominal pelvic cavity. Now, remember we said that the abdominal pelvic cavity is at space inferior to or below the diaphragm and the diaphragm is that major muscle of breathing. We're gonna say that within that space are multiple over laughing spaces. And we've talked about some of these before we'll go through those first and a little bit more quickly. First up, we have the abdominal cavity that's the space below or inferior to the diaphragm, but still above or superior to the pelvis. And there we set our things like the liver, most of your digestive organs, the pancreas, the spleen and to this list, we will add the kidneys. Then we had the pelvic cavity. Pelvic cavity is a space below or inferior to the abdomen and surrounded by the hip bones of the pelvis. And there is the bladder as well as any internal reproductive organs. So, in females, ovaries and the uterus, for example, and males prostate, for example, to this. Now, we're gonna add the peritoneal cavity. Remember, the peritoneal cavity is a cirrus membrane bound cavity and the serous membrane that surrounds this, the peritoneal cavity is the peritoneum. Now, the peritoneal cavity is gonna surround most abdominal organs and some superior pelvic organ. And that's because remember the abdominal and pelvic cavities, there's no hard dividing line between them like there is between the abdominal cavity and the thoracic cavity. So the peritoneum and the peritoneal cavity while it's mostly in the abdominal cavity can extend down into the pelvic cavity as well. Some organs in the pelvic cavity such as the uterus are gonna be mostly wrapped by the peritoneal cavity. While things like the bladder, just the superior surface is gonna be touching the peritoneum. Now, we're gonna add a completely new vocab word here and this is gonna be the retroperitoneum. The retroperitoneum is gonna be the space behind or posterior to the peritoneum, but still within the abdominal cavity. Now, you can look at that word and it has that prefix retro and you're probably familiar with like retro music or retro clothing, that's music or clothing from back in time. So retro means back or behind the retroperitoneum is in back over behind the peritoneum. What you're gonna find there are the kidneys as well as some other things like some of the pancreas, some of the rectum. But if there's a question about the retroperitoneum, it's quite often about the kidneys. So just keep that in mind, let's look over on our anatomical model. Now, we have a sagittal view of the abdominal pelvic cavity. We know it's a mid sagittal view because we can see the spine here. Now, first off, I notice I see all these organs in cross section going down. But what we're really looking at here is the blue and the blue is going to be the peritoneum and the peritoneal cavity. And you can see how it goes up and it surrounds all those different organs and what is really a, a pretty complex shape, be able to do that. So we have some arrows here and these arrows are just pointing to those organs surrounded by the peritoneum. We also have some arrows down here though. And these arrows are going to be pointing to organs that are retro peritoneal organs, the organs behind the peritoneum and that's going to be the rectum. And what you can't see here are the kidneys because they're more lateral to what this mid sat you can show. All right, before you go on, I just want to bring back our analogy of our plastic bag. So let's pretend that this plastic bag is the peritoneum and I'm gonna tie it off. So it's like the sh like a balloon. And remember inside the bag where we can't access now is that peritoneal cav but with our other serous membranes, right? With the lungs and the heart, we just said, OK, imagine you take a fist and it wraps around and that's a pretty simple shape. The parrot's name is just gonna be so much more complex than that. Imagine. Now, instead of just a fist, you take both hands with all your fingers in, in weird shapes, you push them in from other sides and they kind of wrap around and grab on to each other in all sorts of different ways. Well, we still have one membrane and one cavity that's surrounding all these different structures in there. And it's creating this really complex shape. But all my organs on my fingers are still surrounded by that one membrane in that one cavity. And then there is the serous fluid. So as I move the trunk of my body, these organs can slide past each other just a little bit quite easily. You don't need to understand the full shape of this peritoneum. Right now, it's quite complex. It's very difficult to picture in three dimensions. When you get to the digestive system. In this course, you're likely to learn a few key structures of the peritoneum, but we'll save it till then to learn those for now, just understand it's a crazy complex shape covering most of the organs of the abdominal cavity and a few in the pelvic cavity. So to wrap this up, we have the peritoneum in the peritoneal cavity, peritoneum and peritoneal cavity. Most of the organs in the abdominal cavity, a few of the organs in the pelvic cavity. And behind it, you find the retroperitoneum where things like the kidney are located. All right. We have now finished our organization of the anterior body cavity. We have an example, questions to follow like always but just want to say, heck of a job everybody.
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example
Organization of the Body: Abdominopelvic Cavity Example 1
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2m
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This example says for each of the organs below place a check in the box for the cavity that surrounds each organ. If the organ is not surrounded by that cavity, leave the cell blank. So for organs, we have the bladder, the stomach, the lungs, the large intestine and the kidneys. And we wanna know is that in the abdominal cavity, the pelvic cavity or the peritoneal cavity. So we'll start with the bladder. Is it in the abdominal cavity? No, I'll leave that one blank is in the pelvic cavity. Yes, it is. I'm gonna give it a check. Is it surrounded by the peritoneal cavity? Well, remember the peritoneum and the peritoneal cavity is mostly in the abdominal cavity, but it does extend into the superior region of the pelvic cavity. Now, the superior surface of the bladder is in contact with the peritoneum, but the peritoneal cavity does not completely surround the bladder. So I'm gonna keep, leave that one blank. Next up. We have the stomach is the stomach in the abdominal cavity. Yes, it is. Is it in the pelvic cavity? No, it's way up near the superior region of the abdominal cavity. So the pelvic cavity blank. Is it surrounded by the peritoneal cavity? Yes, it is. I'll give it the green check. Next we have the lungs. Are the lungs in the abdominal cavity. No. Are they a pelvic cavity? No? Well, if they're not in the abdominal or pelvic cavity, they cannot be surrounded by the peritoneum or the peritoneal cavity because that's where the peritoneal cavity is so not surrounded by that. I'm gonna leave the entire row blank. Next up, we have the large intestine is the large intestine in the abdominal cavity. Yes, it is. Give it a check. Is it in the pelvic cavity? Yeah. Some of it is, I'm gonna give you a check there. Is it surrounded by the peritoneal cavity? Heck, yeah, it is three checks straight across the board. Finally, we have the kidneys. So, are the kidneys in the abdominal cavity? Absolutely. Are they in pelvic cavity? So, you're up here in the abdominal cavity? Are they surrounded by the peritoneal cavity? No, we said the kidneys are retroperitoneal. All right. With that, we got some more practice problems to follow. I'll see you there.
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Problem
Problem
You are preparing to operate on a patient to perform a bariatric procedure where a gastric ring is placed on the stomach. To perform this operation, what serous membrane do you need to cut through?
A
Pleura
B
Abdominal
C
Diaphragm
D
Peritoneum
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Problem
Problem
You are preparing to operate on a patient to perform a procedure on their kidneys. If you plan for your incision to cut through the posterior lumbar region, will you have to cut through the peritoneum? Select the answer that is most correct.
A
Yes, the peritoneum lines abdominopelvic cavity.
B
Yes, the kidneys are within the peritoneal cavity.
C
No, the kidneys are posterior to the peritoneum.
D
No, the kidneys are deep to the peritoneum.
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Problem
Problem
Appendicitis is the swelling of the appendix due to blockage and disease. Swelling from appendicitis can lead to death by sepsis if the appendix ruptures releasing bacteria. Given your knowledge of the peritoneal cavity, how could the infection from a burst appendix spread so rapidly?
A
The peritoneum spans the entire ventral cavity meaning the infection could travel to virtually all organs.
B
The rich blood supply to the peritoneal cavity means that the infection would quickly enter the blood.
C
The burst membrane would release immune cells from the peritoneal cavity meaning they are no longer at the site of the infection.
D
The peritoneal cavity contains serous fluid allowing the infection to quickly spread throughout the abdominopelvic cavity.
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