Spleen which cavity

The spleen, along with the liver , removes old and damaged erythrocytes from the circulating blood. Like other lymphatic tissue, it produces lymphocytes, especially in response to invading pathogens.

The sinuses in the spleen are a reservoir for blood. In emergencies such as hemorrhage , smooth muscle in the vessel walls and in the capsule of the spleen contracts. This squeezes the blood out of the spleen into the general circulation. This sheet of peritoneum, the gastro-splenic ligament, extends to the greater curve of the stomach. It's in fact an upward continuation of the greater omentum. If we divide the gastrosplenic ligament, which we've done here, we come into the lesser sac, which is no surprise when we recall the developmental anatomy here.

You'll recall that the spleen developed between the two layers of the dorsal mesogastrium. As it grew it bulged out within the outer layer, which forms its peritoneal covering. Two double folds of peritoneum meet at the hilum: one in front, the gastrosplenic ligament which we just divided, and one behind, the lieno-renal ligament, which we haven't seen yet.

Between the two folds is the left-hand limit of the lesser sac. Going back to the to the dissection, here's the divided gastrosplenic ligament, here behind the spleen is the lieno-renal ligament.

This gives the spleen a loose connection to the left kidney, which lies just behind it. Here in the Here in the posterior wall of the lesser sac, the tail of the pancreas comes almost to the hilum of the spleen.

The left flexure of the colon, the splenic flexure, lies in front of the spleen and just below it. Here in a different specimen is the same area seen from the left side.

The lower ribs came down to here. As before, we've stitched the cut edge of the diaphragm to the chest wall, all the way along here. The left kidney leaves an imprint on the intermediate and inferior borders. The colic imprint is from the splenic flexure of the colon. The tail of the pancreas leaves an impression between the hilum and colic impression sites. The splenic hilum is found on the inferomedial aspect of the gastric imprint. The splenic hilum contains nerves, splenic vessels, and also contains attachments for the splenorenal and gastrosplenic ligaments.