Henry Gray (1825–1861). Anatomy of the Human Body. 1918.
pages 1154
| and is continued on to the upper ends of the seminal vesicles and the bladder; on either side of the rectum it forms a fossa, the pararectal fossa, which varies in size with the distension of the rectum. In front of the rectum the peritoneum forms the rectovesical excavation, which is limited laterally by peritoneal folds extending from the sides of the bladder to the rectum and sacrum. These folds are known from their position as the rectovesical or sacrogenital folds. The peritoneum of the anterior pelvic wall covers the superior surface of the bladder, and on either side of this viscus forms a depression, termed the paravesical fossa, which is limited laterally by the fold of peritoneum covering the ductus deferens. The size of this fossa is dependent on the state of distension of the bladder; when the bladder is empty, a variable fold of peritoneum, the plica vesicalis transversa, divides the fossa into two portions. On the peritoneum between the paravesical and pararectal fossæ the only elevations are those produced by the ureters and the hypogastric vessels. (b) In the female, pararectal and paravesical fossæ similar to those in the male are present: the lateral limit of the paravesical fossa is the peritoneum investing the round ligament of the uterus. The rectovesical excavation is, however, divided by the uterus and vagina into a small anterior vesicouterine and a large, deep, posterior rectouterine excavation. The sacrogenital folds form the margins of the latter, and are continued on to the back of the uterus to form a transverse fold, the torus uterinus. The broad ligaments extend from the sides of the uterus to the lateral walls of the pelvis; they contain in their free margins the uterine tubes, and in their posterior layers the ovaries. Below, the broad ligaments are continuous with the peritoneum on the lateral walls of the pelvis. On the lateral pelvic wall behind the attachment of the broad ligament, in the angle between the elevations produced by the diverging hypogastric and external iliac vessels is a slight fossa, the ovarian fossa, in which the ovary normally lies. |
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FIG. 1038– Horizontal disposition of the peritoneum in the lower part of the abdomen. (See enlarged image) |
| (2) In the Lower Abdomen (Fig. 1038).—Starting from the linea alba, below the level of the transverse colon, and tracing the continuity of the peritoneum in a horizontal direction to the right, the membrane covers the inner surface of the abdominal wall almost as far as the lateral border of the Quadratus lumborum; |