The bladder is an elastic organ, which is a reservoir for collecting urine, located in the abdominal cavity. In the bladder, the spent fluid from the kidneys enters the ureters and then exits through the urethra (urethra).
Structure and function of the bladder
The bladder has a rounded shape. Its size and shape change depending on the filling of the cavity. An empty bubble resembles a flat saucer in outline, a full one - an inverted pear tilted backwards. The bladder can hold about three quarters of a liter of liquid in itself.
Filled with urine, the bladder gradually stretches, and with increasing pressure in its cavity sends signals about the need for emptying. The person feels the urge, and during normal operation of the sphincters can postpone the act of urination for a long time. When the filling limit is reached, the desire to go to the toilet becomes unbearable, and the bladder begins to ache.
Urination occurs due to relaxation of the sphincters and contraction of the muscular walls of the bladder. This process man can control, by compressing sphincters.
Consider how the bladder is arranged:
- The bubble reservoir (detrusor) occupies most of it and consists of the upper segment, the body, the bottom and the cervical sector. The tip connects the bladder with the umbilical ligament. The bottom of the bladder, gradually narrowing, passes into the cervical segment, which ends with a blocking sphincter at the entrance to the urethra .
- The blocking department of the bladder consists of muscular sphincters: the inner one is located around the opening of the urethral canal, the outer one - 2 cm deep into the urethra.
The structure of the wall of the bladder
The walls of the bladder have a muscular structure lined from the inside with a mucous epithelial layer. Mucoid forms folding, which is stretched when the bladder is filled with urine.
The anterior wall of the urinary bladder in women is directed towards the articulation, the posterior looking up towards the peritoneum. The structure of the bottom and neck of the bladder in women suggests their location along the vagina.
Disorders in the work of sphincters and the walls of the bladder cause various diseases, the most common of which are cystitis, stones and sand, tumor formations.
If there are problems in the urinary system, the color and odor of urine changes (normally it is light yellow, transparent and almost odorless). Ill urine darkens, becomes cloudy, unpleasant smells, can contain blood particles and foreign inclusions. Such conditions require examination of the analysis of urine, bladder cavity and urethra.