the.com/peritoneum
the body's cling film, wrapping your guts in a self-cleaning silk that even surgeons respect.
means The smooth, thin membrane lining the abdominal cavity and enveloping most of the organs within it, secreting fluid that lets them glide against one another without friction.
from From Greek 'peritonaion,' built from 'peri-' (around) and 'teinein' (to stretch) — literally the thing 'stretched around.' The anatomists who named it pictured exactly that: a sheet pulled taut over the viscera, the same 'teinein' that gives us 'tension' and 'tendon.' Latin borrowed it as 'peritoneum,' and the stretched-around membrane kept its name into English.
- surface area
- nearly the size of your entire skin
- dual layers
- a slick double sheet so organs glide painlessly
- used for dialysis
- doctors filter blood through it like a membrane
- inflammation kills
- peritonitis was once an automatic death sentence
- fluid cushion
- holds a thin film to prevent friction