While its parts have always been there, and have long been considered a part of the digestive system, the mesentery has recently been reclassified as an organ. For centuries the structure that connects the gut to the body has been considered fragmented, with its parts scattered and separated. Researchers from the University of Limerick (UL) in Ireland presented a study published in the medical journal The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology that asserts the mesentery is, in fact, one continuous organ.
“In the paper, which has been peer reviewed and assessed, we are now saying we have an organ in the body which hasn’t been acknowledged as such to date,” said lead researcher J Calvin Coffrey, professor of surgery at the UL’s Graduate Entry Medical School. “The anatomic description that had been laid down over 100 years of anatomy was incorrect. This organ is far from fragmented and complex.”
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