Although we already knew it, until now we had no idea that it was an organ. Until now, the mesentery was the form in which several double folds were called located in the peritoneum (the membrane that covers our intestine).
Although it was suspected for a decade that it could be an organ and not simple folds, so far there has been no confirmation. It has been a study published in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology that opened the debate.
More than a century of human anatomy has taken a drastic turn as a result of the discovery. This new classification has great consequences when making any diagnosis of our digestive system. At the moment, the researchers must know in depth our new organ in order to know its exact function and, later, to evaluate in which types of pathology can influence.
