What is the bladder?
The bladder is a type of hollow organ. (1)
What does the bladder do?
collects and expels urine from the body. (1)
The bladder holds urine until it is expelled from the body through the urethra. (1)
Two sphincters – one internal and one external – at the base of the bladder help keep urine in the bladder until nerve signals tell it to contract and release urine. (1)
What does the bladder look like?
The bladder is a triangle-shaped, hollow organ. (1)
What does the bladder contain?
The bladder has flexible walls that stretch and contract. (1)
A series of nerves controlled by the autonomic nervous system flow through the bladder, signaling when it is full and needs to be emptied. (1)
Blood is supplied to the bladder a the top by the vesical artery and at the bottom by the vaginal artery or vesicule artery. (1)
Smaller arteries – the inferior gluteal artery and the obturator artery – also contribute. (1)
Blood drains from the bladder through the vesical veins, which flow to the iliac veins. (1)
The urine that collects in the bladder is made in the kidneys from the body’s waste products and excess fluid. (1)
The fluid travels from the kidneys down two ureters, one descending from each kidney to the bladder. (1)
The bladder serves as a reservoir to hold the urine until a reflex or conscious action – depending on age and ability – releases it. (1)
With flexible walls that expand as it fills with urine, the bladder may extend up into the abdomen when it is full. (1)
contains the apex, fundus, body, and neck (1)
made of smooth muscle (1)
Where is it located?
In men, the bladder is bordered by the pubic bone at the front of the pelvis, and the rectum at the back of the pelvis in the lower abdomen. (1)
In women, the bladder is bordered posteriorly by the uterus and vagina. (1)
The bladder is supported by ligaments and connects at the top to two ureters and at the bottom to the urethra. (1)
urate crystals or stones in the bladder?
Resources
1. https://www.verywellhealth.com/bladder-anatomy-4845638
