Ureters - Anatomy & Physiology

BACK TO URINARY - ANATOMY & PHYSIOLOGY

Overview

• Muscular tube
• Passes in retroperitoneal space
• 2 Parts
  • Abdominal Portion
  • Pelvic portion
    • At this points it moves medially
    • In the female this movment is through the broad ligament
    • In the male it is through the mesoductus
• It ends of the dorsolateral surface of the bladder
  • Within the lateral ligament of the bladder

Wall

• It has a mucous membrane
  • It is formed from transitory epithelium
  • Protects against urine
• Under that is a lamina propria
• Followed by a muscularis layer
• And finally on the outside an adventitia

Junction With the Bladder

The ureter enters the bladder obliquely Runs between the muscular layers and mucosa This stops back flow when the bladder is full as increasing pressure in the bladder pushes the two layers together occluding the ends of the ureters. They open through 2 slits on a raised "hillock"