Anatom3DWall of small intestine
Paries intestini tenuis · Stěna tenkého střeva
Digestive system
Looks like
The layered wall of the small bowel: velvety lining with villi, a supporting layer, two muscle layers and an outer smooth coat.
What it does
Absorbs food through a huge surface and moves contents along by waves of muscle contraction.
Keeping it well
Coeliac disease flattens the villi; loss of blood supply to the wall is an emergency with severe pain out of proportion to findings.
Related conditions
- Acute mesenteric ischaemia (gut stroke)
- Bowel obstruction
- Coeliac disease
- Crohn's disease
- Food poisoning
- Gastroenteritis
- Giardiasis
- Intestinal worms & schistosomiasis
- Intussusception & pyloric stenosis
- Iron deficiency
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Lactose & food intolerance
- Malnutrition & refeeding syndrome
- Necrotising enterocolitis
- Radiation injury
- Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO)
- Typhoid & cholera
- Volvulus (twisted bowel)