What is the large intestine?
A: The large intestine is the last part of the gastrointestinal tract and of
the digestive system in vertebrates.
The colon of the large intestine is the last part of
what?
A: The digestive system.
It has a segmented appearance due to a series of what?
A: Saccules called haustra.
What does it do?
A: It extracts water and salt from solid wastes before they are eliminated
from the body and is the site in which the fermentation of unabsorbed
material by the gut microbiota occurs.
Unlike the small intestine, the colon does not play a
major role in what?
A: Absorption of
foods and nutrients.
How much water arrives in the colon each day?
A: About 1.5 litres or 45 ounces.
The colon is the longest part of the large intestine
and its average length in the adult human is what?
A: 65 inches or 166 cm (range of 80 to 313 cm) for males, and 61 inches or
155 cm (range of 80 to 214 cm) for females.
What are the four sections of the colon?
A: The ascending colon, transverse colon, descending colon, and sigmoid
colon.
These sections turn at what?
A: Colic flexures.
In terms of diameter, what is the widest part?
A: The cecum is the widest.
The cecum is the first section of the large intestine
and is involved in what?
A: Digestion.
The appendix which develops embryologically from it, is
not involved in digestion and is part of what?
A: The gut-associated lymphoid tissue.
The appendix has been shown to have a high
concentration of what type of cells?
A: Lymphatic cells.
The ascending colon is connected to the small intestine
by a section of bowel called what?
A: The cecum.
The ascending colon runs upwards through the abdominal
cavity toward the transverse colon for approximately how far?
A: Eight inches (20 cm).
The transverse colon hangs off the stomach, attached to
it by a large fold of peritoneum called what?
A: The greater omentum.
On the posterior side, the transverse colon is
connected to what?
A: The posterior abdominal wall by a mesentery known as the transverse
mesocolon.
The transverse colon is encased in what?
A: Peritoneum and is therefore mobile (unlike the parts of the colon
immediately before and after it).
The descending colon is the part of the colon from the
splenic flexure to the beginning of what?
A: The sigmoid colon.
One function of the descending colon in the digestive
system is to store what?
A: Feces.
The descending colon is also called what?
A: The distal gut, as it is further along the gastrointestinal tract than
the proximal gut.
The sigmoid colon is the part of the large intestine
after the descending colon and before what?
A: The rectum.
The name sigmoid means what?
A: S-shaped.
The walls of the sigmoid colon are muscular and
contract to do what?
A: Increase the pressure inside the colon, causing the stool to move into
the rectum.
How long is the rectum, the last section of the large
intestine?
A: It is about 12 cm long.