Henry Gray (1825–1861). Anatomy of the Human Body. 1918.
pages 1158
| In most cases the peritoneum covers only the front and sides of the ascending and descending parts of the colon. Sometimes, however, these are surrounded by the serous membrane and attached to the posterior abdominal wall by an ascending and a descending mesocolon respectively. A fold of peritoneum, the phrenicocolic ligament, is continued from the left colic flexure to the diaphragm opposite the tenth and eleventh ribs; it passes below and serves to support the spleen, and therefore has received the name of sustentaculum lienis. |
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FIG. 1040– Diagram devised by Delépine to show the lines along which the peritoneum leaves the wall of the abdomen to invest the viscera. (See enlarged image) |
| The appendices epiploicæ are small pouches of the peritoneum filled with fat and situated along the colon and upper part of the rectum. They are chiefly appended to the transverse and sigmoid parts of the colon. |
Peritoneal Recesses or Fossæ (retroperitoneal fossæ).—In certain parts of the abdominal cavity there are recesses of peritoneum forming culs-de-sac or pouches, which are of surgical interest in connection with the possibility of the occurrence of “retroperitoneal” herniæ. The largest of these is the omental bursa (already described), but several others, of smaller size, require mention, and may be divided into three groups, viz.: duodenal, cecal, and intersigmoid. |