Body of Pancreas

Click to View Larger Image

The body of the pancreas is the main area of the pancreas. It has a prismatic shape and there are three surfaces: the inferior, posterior and anterior surface. The anterior surface points up and forward. Its shape is a bit concave and it has the stomach's posteroinferior surface around it. The stomach lies on the body of the pancreas and the omental bursa separates the two organs.

The tuber omentale marks where the body of the pancreas meets the neck. This borders the lesser omentum's posterior surface. The posterior surface is adjacent with the origina of the superior mesenteric artery, the aorta, the left suprarenal gland, the lienal vein, the left kidney and its vessels, and the diaphragm's crura. It lacks any peritoneum.

The inferior surface, however, has peritoneum covering it. This surface's right side is narrow and its left side is wider. It rests on the duodenojejunal flexure and on some of the jejunum's coils. The left extremity lies on the left colic flexure.

The anterior border keeps the anterior and the inferior surface apart. The transverse mesocolon's two layers separate from each other on this border. One layer goes up and over the anterior surface, while the other goes back over the inferior surface.

The inferior border keeps the inferior surface apart from the posterior. Under its right extremity the superior mesenteric vessels appear.

The superior border is sharp and thin on the left, near the tail and flat and blunt on the right. The omental tuberosity is where it ends on the right. It is close to the celiac artery, where the hepatic artery flows to the right, over the gland. The lienal artery goes left on this border.