Organization of the Body: Serous Membrane Locations
1. Introduction to Anatomy & Physiology
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Locations of Serous Membranes
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Video transcript
We've been talking about serous membranes and serous cavities in general, and we've been using the heart as an example when we do that. But of course, the heart is not the only organ that moves inside of your body. When you breathe, your lungs expand and contract. As food moves through the digestive tract, those organs change shape. As you move your body, the organs inside you need to move with you. So most of those organs are gonna be surrounded by serous membranes and serous cavities much like the heart is. We're now gonna name the specific serous membranes of the body and say where they're located. So we're gonna start by just noting that there are 4 serous membranes and they are located in the thoracic and abdominal pelvic cavities. The first two are gonna be the pleurii. The pleurii form the pleural cavities, and these surround each lung. Now remember, the lung is not in the cavity. The cavity surrounds the lung. We can take a look at our anatomical model over here, and we see a model from a sagittal view, and we can see the anterior body cavity. And here in blue, and taking up most of the thoracic cavity here, we see pretty much the shape of a lung, and it's labeled pleura. One pleura surrounds one lung. Now you may notice that the pleura here ends in a single a and over here it's pleuri, where it ends in ae. These are these kind of weird Latin endings where a single a means a singular. One pleura surrounds one lung, and ae, pleurii, is multiple. There's 2 pleurii that surround the lungs. That sometimes gets me a little confused, but I can use it to help me remember that the pleurii and pleural cavities refer to the lungs. And that's because pleural cavities is plural. There's more than one lung. There's more than one pleural cavity. Now those two words, plural and plural, they come from completely different roots, but for this purposes, it doesn't matter. Plural means more than 1. You have more than one lung. Okay. Pericardium is next, and the pericardium forms the pericardial cavity. This is the membrane and the cavity that surrounds the heart. And again, as we look over at our anatomical model here, we can see the shape of a heart in green at the anterior portion of the thoracic cavity here, and it's labeled pericardium as that's the membrane surrounding the heart. Now remember this, cardiac means heart and peri means around. So when you put those together, pericardium, it literally means around the heart, and this is the membrane and the cavity that surrounds the heart. Our final membrane and cavity, well, the membrane is the peritoneum, and that's gonna form the peritoneal cavity. This is gonna surround most digestive organs. And again, as we look over at our anatomical model, we can see the peritoneum here in this sort of yellow or orange color, and it's taking up most of the abdominal cavity and it even enters down into the pelvic cavity some. And that's because, remember, there is no hard dividing line between the pelvic cavity and the abdominal cavity, and it's going to be labeled peritoneum. So the peritoneum is gonna be a little bit different than these other cavities cavities because these other cavities all surrounded one organ. The peritoneum is surrounding most digestive organs. You have several digestive organs and some of them are kind of crazy shapes. Right? Your intestines are over 20 feet long, and all of that intestine is gonna be touching peritoneum and not other organs. So the shape of this membrane and the shape of this cavity is gonna be really complex. It's gonna be really big and much more complex than the other membranes. And you can remember that a little bit because peritoneum literally means stretched around. It's going to be stretched around a whole bunch of different organs. We're gonna go into that in a little bit more detail in a future video. For now, what you need to remember is that there's 2 pluri. They surround the lungs. The pericardium surrounds the heart. And the peritoneum is the membrane that surrounds most digestive organs and some of the organs in the superior region of the pelvic cavity. For that, I'll see you in the next video.
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Organization of the Body: Serous Membrane Locations Example 1
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2m
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Video transcript
This example asks us to match each layer of the serous membrane with an organ or structure it touches. So let's see what we got to match. We have the visceral pericardium, the parietal pleura, the visceral peritoneum, and the parietal peritoneum. Alright. Before I get going here, I just want to note that for me all those p words start getting jumbled in my head. Right? We have pericardium, parietal peritoneum. So let's just take it step by step and break down each word 1 by 1. So first off, we have A, the visceral pericardium. So visceral remember, viscera refers to the organ. So this is the organ side of the membrane and pericardium. Well, we said peri means around and cardiac is heart, so it's around the heart. Around the heart on the organ side of the heart. So it's gonna be touching the heart. There it is. A. The first option, heart. Next up, we have parietal pleura. Now remember, parietal Parietal was Latin meaning wall, so it's going to be touching the body wall in pleura. Right? Remember, like, pleura and pleural cavities. That's plural. There's more than one pleura because there's 2 lungs. So touching the body wall around the lungs is gonna be touching the walls of the thoracic cavity or the chest. So there we have it. B down here, the wall of the chest. Next up, we have the visceral peritoneum. Visceral, remember, visceral again is the viscera. That's gonna be the organ side of the membrane. And peritoneum. Peritoneum, we said stretched around, and it's stretched around all these different digestive organs. So the visceral peritoneum is gonna be touching the organs in the abdomen. We have an organ of the abdomen over here in the liver. So I feel confident that the visceral peritoneum is going to be touching the liver. Then finally, we have the parietal peritoneum. Now we only have one more place, but let's break it down anyways. Parietal meant wall, and peritoneum was the membrane that's in the abdominal and a little bit into the pelvic cavities. So if it's touching the body wall and the abdominal cavity, it's gonna be touching the wall of the abdomen. There it is, d, wall of the abdomen. Okay. Again, those words can be a little confusing. Take them step by step, break them down in your head, and you'll do fine. See you the next video.
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Problem
Problem
Which body cavity has multiple serous cavities within it?
A
Thoracic
B
Abdominopelvic
C
Pleural
D
Every body cavity contains one serous cavity.
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