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Showing posts with label GALLBLADDER. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GALLBLADDER. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

GALLBLADDER, PANCREAS, AND SPLEEN

GALLBLADDER, PANCREAS, AND SPLEEN 

The gallbladder, already discussed, is a kind of "side pocket" in the channel through which bile flows from the liver into the intestine, serving as a storage place. The pancreas, which weighs about three ounces, lies high up in the abdomen, deep behind the stomach. The pancreatic duct carries the digestive secretion, pancreatic fluid, through a common opening with the bile duct, into the duodenum. 

The fluid contains three important enzymes: amylase acts on carbohydrate foods; lipase functions in fat digestion; and trypsin is a protein-digesting agent. Equally important are the islets of Langerhans which are contained in the pancreas and produce insulin, a lack of which causes diabetes. 

The spleen, although often bracketed in people's minds with the pancreas, is not an organ of digestion. Roughly fist-shaped and about six inches long, it lies high up behind the stomach. In the unborn baby, the spleen plays an important role in producing red and white blood cells. After birth, it no longer manufactures red cells but still makes white cells.

 In adult life, it makes neither but does serve by doing the opposite-destroying old blood cells. The spleen is not vital; it can be removed without harm. While it is a useful organ, its functions can be performed elsewhere in the body. Normally, the spleen cannot be felt from outside unless it enlarges considerably.


It usually does so when affected by disease, and in extreme cases may increase fifty fold in size. Enlargement may carry some hazard since the spleen, when engorged with blood, may produce severe internal bleeding after a bump or knock that ordinarily would be trivial.