Surgical anatomy of the female pelvis

Abstract

The female genitourinary system is mainly derived from the intermediate cell mass, which in turn is derived from the mesoderm following gastrulation. The pelvic girdle, however, is derived from the caudal mesoderm, which, as the name implies, is the mesoderm found caudal to the cloacal membrane. Upon folding, the caudal mesoderm folds ventrally at the point of the cloacal membrane, distal to the paraxial mesoderm and notochord, in such a way that the pelvic girdle wraps around the distal end of the trunk to fuse with the sacral somites and encase the developing female genitourinary system, and leads to the formation of the rump. Blastogenic defects involving the cloaca and caudal folding may also be associated with urogenital and possibly ano-rectal malformations, which can lead to reproductive problems.