Urinary bladder at a glance
- What it is
- The urinary bladder is a hollow muscular organ that stores urine.
- Location
- In adults it lies in the pelvis behind the pubic symphysis. In males it lies in front of the rectum and above the prostate; in females it lies in front of the uterus and vagina. When full it rises into the abdomen.
- Function
- It stores urine (about 300 to 500 mL comfortably) and expels it during micturition by contraction of the detrusor muscle.
- Body system
- Urinary · single, midline structure
- FMA ID
- FMA15900 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Lined with transitional epithelium; the trigone is the smooth triangle between the ureteric openings and the internal urethral orifice.
- Parasympathetic fibres (S2 to S4) contract the detrusor; sympathetic fibres (T11 to L2) promote storage.
Clinical relevance
Urinary tract infections are common; bladder cancer is typically urothelial carcinoma.
Structures next to the urinary bladder
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Calcaneal branches of posterior tibial artery · cardiovascular
- Skin · skin
- Prostate · reproductive
- Seminal vesicle · reproductive
- Pubococcygeus · muscular
- Puborectalis · muscular
- Obturator vein · cardiovascular
- Rectum · digestive
- External iliac vein · cardiovascular
- Median sacral vein · cardiovascular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Urinary bladder (FMA15900). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §25.3 Gross Anatomy of the Kidney. Rice University, 2022.
- Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.