Anatom3DIleocaecal valve
Ostium ileale (valva ileocaecalis) · Ileocékální chlopeň
Digestive system
Looks like
A lipped opening where the end of the small intestine joins the large bowel, low on the right of the belly.
What it does
Controls flow into the colon and limits backflow of bacteria into the small intestine.
Keeping it well
Crohn's disease often affects the bowel just before it; persistent right-sided pain with diarrhoea and weight loss needs investigating.
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)