Hundreds of years of anatomical and medical science were proven wrong when scientists at the University of Limerick in Ireland discovered a newly classified organ in the human body.
The mesentery, which connects our small intestine to the abdomen, was long thought to be a complex series of fragmented parts.
But J. Calvin Coffey, a colorectal surgeon and professor of surgery at the university, was intrigued by the inconsistencies in the description of the mesentery in textbooks compared to what his experience was while operating on patients. Different textbooks suggested that the mesentery was vestigial, rudimentary, or not even present.
“It struck me that that was incorrect because every time we had to operate on the left side of the colon or rectum, we had to detach this substantive structure from the back wall of the abdomen. The same happened on the right hand side,” Coffey told Global News.
His findings, published in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology, gathered the evidence that re-categorized the mesentery as an organ.
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“It just occurred to me … that the mesentery was present throughout, it was continuous, it wasn’t present in multiple separate parts and that the structure that we operate on as surgeons is remarkably very different to the classic anatomic descriptions of that structure.”
Coffey concedes that he’s not the first to recognize the mesentery as a whole. He said Leonardo da Vinci and 16th century anatomist Bartolomeo Eustachi drew the mesentery as one continuous piece. He’s also not surprised that traditional Chinese medicine identified the structure as whole several thousand years ago.
“We’re not saying anything new here. What we have done is described this structure, its anatomy, shape and its conformation,” he said. “That helps us in systematically studying it and helps establish the science of it and moving that science forward.”
One big effect that these findings have made is that the influential anatomy textbook “Gray’s Anatomy” has updated its latest edition to reflect that the mesentery is one continuous piece.
Coffey said he plans to continue his research to discover the function of the new organ. He said they already have some ideas of its function: it could be a structural component in the digestive system to help suspend our intestines while we stand; it could also act as a barrier between the intestines and the abdominal wall to prevent tearing during digestion.
“What’s really wonderful here is that we made an observation. That observation is going to make things simpler for people. It’s taken an area that’s historically regarded as incredibly complex. We’ve simplified it radically,” said Coffey. “That’s a really wonderful feeling. It’s exciting. We’re on the cusp of exciting opportunities in teaching and science.”
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