The Pelvic Portion of the Sympathetic System

Anatomy > Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body > IX. Neurology > 7e. The Pelvic Portion of the Sympathetic System

Henry Gray (1821–1865). Anatomy of the Human Body. 1918.

The Pelvic Portion of the Sympathetic System

(Pars Pelvina S. Sympathici)

The pelvic portion of each sympathetic trunk is situated in front of the sacrum, medial to the anterior sacral foramina. It consists of four or five small sacral ganglia, connected together by interganglionic cords, and continuous above with the abdominal portion. Below, the two pelvic sympathetic trunks converge, and end on the front of the coccyx in a small ganglion, the ganglion impar

Gray rami communicantes pass from the ganglia to the sacral and coccygeal nerves. No white rami communicantes are given to this part of the gangliated cord, but the visceral branches which arise from the third and fourth, and sometimes from the second, sacral, and run directly to the pelvic plexuses, are regarded as white rami communicantes.

The branches of distribution communicate on the front of the sacrum with the corresponding branches from the opposite side; some, from the first two ganglia, pass to join the pelvic plexus, and others form a plexus, which accompanies the middle sacral artery and sends filaments to the glomus coccygeum (coccygeal body).

External links

• Anatomy figure: 21:04-04 at Human Anatomy Online, SUNY Downstate Medical Center - "The position of the right and left vagus nerves, and sympathetic trunks in the mediastinum."
• Anatomy photo:43:15-0102 at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center - "The Female Pelvis: The Posterolateral Pelvic Wall"
• Atlas image: n3a6p1 at the University of Michigan Health System - "Autonomic Connections of the Spinal Cord"
• Diagram at umm.edu

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