Pelvic Fascia 



363 



l-iterior Crura 



in the rami of the pubes and ischium, until the pelvis becomes ' beaked ' 

 or ' rostrated ' ; as the patient walks the acetabula are thrust inwards. 

 Thus, in the rickety deformity the pelvis is flattened from before back- 

 wards, and in that of osteo-malacia from side to side, the aperture 

 being tri-radiate. 



The pelvis is also deformed when the bend of a lateral lumbar 

 curvature is continued into the sacrum. The sacral vertebras are rotated, 

 and are diminished in the concavity of the lateral curve ; and the 

 sacro-iliac joint is apt to be synostosed, the pelvis being tilted and 

 rendered obliquely ovate. 



The pelvic fascia consists of various sheets which are all more or 

 less continuous with each other, but, because its arrangement is usually 

 studied in its various parts, the student often fails to understand it in its 

 general design and arrangement. The design of the fascia is to steady 

 and strengthen the 

 pelvic viscera, and to 

 shut the ischio-rectal 

 fossa out from the 

 general cavity. 



The fascia lines 

 the circumference of 

 the pelvis, from the 

 pubes in front to the 

 sacrum behind, in 

 one continuous layer, 

 passing behind the 

 internal iliac arteries, 

 but in front of the 

 sacral plexus. From 

 the back of the pubes 

 it descends to the 

 prostate and neck of 

 bladder, constituting 

 the pubo-prostatic 

 ligament ; it also en- 

 closes the prostate 

 and joins the back of 

 the triangular liga- 

 ment. Passing from 

 the side of the pelvis, 

 the fascia slopes 



down over the upper surface of the levator ani to form the true lateral 

 ligaments of the bladder, continuous, of course, with the pubo-prostatic 

 ligaments. Just behind the bladder it encloses the seminal vesicles 

 and joins with the piece of the opposite side in front of the rectum. 

 A little further back, but still over the levator ani, it loses itself upon 



Obturator Fascia - 



Internal Puttie Vessels ie-Neri't 



