title: Pancreas: peritoneal reflections, ligamentous connections, and pathways of disease spread.
abstract: The pancreas is a retroperitoneal organ with a close anatomic relationship to the peritoneal reflections in the abdomen, including the transverse mesocolon and the small bowel mesentery, and is directly contiguous to peritoneal ligaments such as the hepatoduodenal ligament, gastrohepatic ligament, splenorenal ligament, gastrocolic ligament, and the greater omentum. Understanding of these anatomic relationships of the pancreas is aided by knowledge of its embryologic development. These reflections and ligaments are potential pathways for spread of disease processes such as pancreatitis and pancreatic carcinoma. One can recognize these ligaments and reflections by identifying the blood vessels that traverse them.
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Imaging, University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA. rvikram@mdanderson.org
authors.forename: Raghunandan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vikram
authors.forename: Aparna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Balachandran
authors.forename: Priya R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Bhosale
authors.forename: Eric P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Tamm
authors.forename: Leonardo P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Marcal
authors.forename: Chusilp
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Charnsangavej
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008022:Ligaments / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology*; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D010179:Pancreas / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology*; D010182:Pancreatic Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed