ABSTRACT
The abdomen or abdominal cavity is the part of the trunk below the diaphragm that separates it from the thoracic cavity. Abdominal pain is a common reason to visit the doctor. The abdomen is also the site where excess fat is deposited. The possibility of disease or injury affecting so many organs makes abdominal surgery one of the more common reasons for admission to hospital. Inflammation of the peritoneum is highly dangerous because it involves about as much surface area in a pathological process as all of the skin covering the body. In thin muscular individuals the tendinous intersections may be seen as transverse depressions on the surface. Damage to the ilioinguinal nerve in the canal does not affect the nerve supply to the muscle fibres guarding the canal, because the motor innervation arises from the nerve well before it reaches the canal; it is incisions in the lateral part of the abdominal wall that may damage it.
