Introduction | Anatomy | Abstracting, Coding, & Staging | Treatment | Hands-on Exercise |
Layers of Bowel Wall
Anatomy of the Colon and Rectum | Layers of Bowel Wall | Regional Lymph Nodes | Unit Review & Quiz |

Lumen (interior surface of colon "tube")
Mucosa
Surface epithelium
Lamina propria or basement membrane--dividing line between in situ and invasive lesions
Muscularis mucosae
Submucosa--lymphatics; potential for metastases increases
Muscularis propria
Circular layer
Longitudinal layer--in three bands called taenia coli
Subserosa--sometimes called pericolic fat or subserosal fat
Serosa--present on ascending, transverse, sigmoid only (also called the visceral peritoneum)

Retroperitoneal fat (also called pericolic fat)
Mesenteric fat (also called pericolic fat)

Click here to see the Figure 3.