How do all of our internal organs stay in their own spot and not move around or drop to other places in our body as we move?
In: Biology
You know how you can move a bit of skin side to side and it snaps back? That is because you have slightly stretchy stuff called connective tissue keeping it there. It’s kind of like your body is held together with little rubber bands everywhere. Your organs have the same type of stuff holding them together so they can move, but not too far.
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The other comments hit the nail on the head. Connective tissue holds it all together, but what and where? One comment mentioned ligaments, which are definitely important in holding the reproductive tract, bladder, and liver. These ligaments also hold different structures together. E.g. the gastrosplenic ligament connects the stomach (gastro) to the spleen (splenic). The intestines are all adhered to the back of the abdominal cavity by mesentery, a thick band of connective tissue that ensures they stay in the spot they’re supposed to. These structures are so good at their job that you can pull out any given organ during surgery and it will go back exactly where it is supposed to, even if you pull tons of intestines out and put it back in. It doesn’t always work though and animals get mesenteric volvulus, where the organs flip around this band and cut off blood supply to almost all the intestines. This is fatal in nearly 100% of cases. Idk if it happens in humans, but I’d imagine it’s even more rare since we’re bipedal.
Actually they can, it’s called prolapse. But I’m pretty sure this isn’t what you meant. Prolapse can happen to obese individuals when the abdominal wall and connective tissues are not strong enough to hold the internal organs in place. They don’t actually move around but just kind of slide down and out of their regular places. Prolapse is a generic medical term for anything that is hanging down that isn’t supposed to.
In the abdomen, there are *intraperitoneal* organs and *extraperitoneal* organs. The extraperitoneal organs are adhered to the abdominal wall; they’re “outside” the sack that contains the abdominal cavity. An example of an extraperitoneal organ is the kidneys.
As for intraperitoneal organs, it’s true that they’re just hanging in there and can shift around as you move. But what keeps them generally in place is…
**Ligaments!** And they’re all named (rip medical students).
For example, the ovaries are pinned to the abdominal wall by the infundibulopelvic ligament, the uterus is pinned to the pelvic wall by the broad and round ligaments.
Connective tissue, muscles and fat keep them in their places. We don’t have many empty spaces inside us, so it’s not like an organ can go walkabout. Some trauma can move some organs here and there (notably kidneys), but most of them are firmly nestled in a layer of connective tissue, some muscle over/under/around it, and fat.
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