Abstract
It is customary to divide the lower intestine into three constituent parts — colon, rectum and anus. While the colon is intimately linked in functional terms to the control of continence, it has no relevance to the structural factors that govern the control of anal continence. However, the same is not true for the rectum and anus: both are vital to the structural basis by which the body governs defaecation. Because of this strong interrelationship between the rectum and anus it is best that the anatomy and the physiology of the continence mechanism are regarded as belonging to one unit — the ano-rectum.
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Mann, C.V., Glass, R.E. (1997). Essential Anatomy of Anal Continence. In: Surgical Treatment of Anal Incontinence. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0935-8_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0935-8_1
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