[Microarchitectonics and microtopography of blood vessels of the human rectum]

By means of injecting the vessels with 0.2% solution of silver nitrate after Ranvier, solutions of Indian ink and gas soot, impregnation after V.V. Kuprianov, the blood vessels of the rectal wall have been studied. The material has been obtained from 50 corpses of persons of various age, not suffering from any diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. The structural organization of the microcirculatory tract has been studied layer-by-layer, at all levels by means of atraumatic lamination of the tunics. Terminal links of the microcirculatory bed form zonal functional complexes of microvessels specific for each part of the rectum. They regularly repeat in a certain tunic and owing to this the whole organization of the microcirculatory bed acquires features of a definite polymeric structure which consists of homonomic complexes of microvessels. Their regularity, as regards their topography and quantity, definitely differs in each tunic and layer of the rectal wall. Precapillary sphincters and arteriolovenular anastomoses are revealed; they perform an active regulation of blood circulation in the organ. Diameters of the microvessels and density of the microcirculatory network have some slight fluctuations (differences) in functionally poorly active tunics of the rectal wall--the serous and submucous, especially in its rectosigmoid part. Differences of these parameters are especially expressed within the limits of the rectal ampule and its mucous and muscular tunics.