168 SURGICAL ANATOMY OF 



CHAPTER V. 



SURGICAL ANATOMY OF THE ABDOMEN. 



BEFORE commencing the strictly surgical anatomy of 

 the abdomen, it will be convenient to point out gener- 

 ally, the relations of the contents of this cavity to the 

 surface of the body, considerations of importance to the 

 surgeon as aids to diagnosis. 



Relations of the Viscera to the Abdominal Parietes. 

 In order to facilitate the description of the abdomen, it 

 can be mapped out by certain arbitrary lines into nine 

 regions, to which the contained viscera can be referred 

 a method of reference of considerable use in a certain 

 way, but of no great value as bearing upon the subject 

 of Surgical Anatomy, properly so called. These lines 

 are vertical and horizontal ; the vertical, passing from 

 the seventh costal cartilage to the middle of Poupart's 

 ligament, on either side, and the horizontal through the 

 level of the ninth costal cartilages, and crests of the ilia. 

 The regions thus indicated are called the 



Right hypochondriac. Epigastric. Left hypochondriac. 



Right lumbar. Umbilical. Left lumbar. 



Right iliac. Hypogastric. Left iliac. 



The stomach lies in the epigastric and left hypochon- 

 driac regions; the transverse colon crosses the umbilical; 

 the jejunum and ileum occupy the umbilical and hypo- 

 gastric ; the ascending and descending colon the iliac and 



