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In 1885, the English surgeon Frederick Treves gave a series of talks at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Treves' most famous moment in abdominal history - treating Edward VII, a few days prior to the king's coronation, by draining an abscess in the royal appendix - would come decades later. But even by the late 19th century Treves was known among his peers as an expert of the guts. He spoke at length to his fellow doctors about the digestive tract, having examined it in a hundred or so cadavers.
The medical field was receptive to his findings. It remained so. As recently as 2008, textbooks like the 40th edition of "Gray's Anatomy" echoed descriptions that Treves presented in his lectures. But Treves' research contained an error that persisted for more than a century, wrote a pair of scientists in the Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology journal, published in November but spotted recently by the Independent: Treves neglected to give the mesentery, a double sheet of connective tissue that curls through the abdomen, the importance it deserved.
Treves declared that the mesentery existed only sporadically, in disjointed ribbons, dispersed among the intestines. That was not so, the researchers wrote in the new report. "The anatomic description that had been laid down over 100 years of anatomy was incorrect. This organ is far from fragmented and complex," said J. Calvin Coffey, a study author and surgeon at the University of Limerick, Ireland, in a statement. "It is simply one continuous structure."
originally posted by: thekaboose
Not gonna claim Im a doctor but:
Doctors have always known about the mesentery, but it has now been classified as the 79th organ in the body
So, its only just been classified, case solved
originally posted by: IgnoranceIsntBlisss
It's localized in Ireland, and hard to pin down because it only activates once per year (its a specialized liver specifically for digesting green ale).
originally posted by: cooperton
I have a gut feeling that the mesentery has great intuitive potential if we learn to listen to it.
Not sure if this is ground breaking or not. I would think if this organ had a vital function then it would have been found long ago? Any medical experts out there? I find it somewhat amazing how we are still discovering new things in a field that we are already pretty advanced in. Just goes to show we don't know everything yet.