The Urinary System

What is the Urinary System? The urinary is system is a system of production, storage, and the elimination of urine. Formation and elimination of the urine is important for the human body because it contains nitrogenous wastes of the body that must be eliminated to maintain homeostasis. The urinary system is important for keeping the internal environment of the body clean. This particular system maintains proper homeostasis of water, salts and nitrogenous wastes (Iqba, 2010). There are four major organs that make up the Urinary system. The four major organs are the kidneys, ureters, urinary bladder, and the urethra. The first organ within the urinary system is the kidney. The kidney is considered as the major organ of the entire system itself.
The urinary bladder is identified as a triangular shape. The bladder has an apex, base, a superior surface, and two inferolateral surfaces. It is located in lower abdomen, where it is held in place by the ligaments that are attached to the pelvic bones. The wall in the bladder relaxes, and expands to store the urine. It also contracts and flattens so it can empty the throughout the urethra. The apex lies behind the upper symphysis pubis, which is connected to the umbilicus ligament. The base of the bladder has triangular shapes and faces posteriorly. Iqba states that the “superolateral angles of the bladder are joined by the ureters and the inferior angle is joined by the urethra. The vasa deferentia lie side by side on the posterior surface, separating the seminal vesicles from one another”. The urinary bladder functions as storage for the urine to delay the frequency of urination. The urinary bladder is made of several distinct tissue layers: the innermost layer of the bladder is the mucosa layer that lines the hollow lumen. Unlike the mucosa of other hollow organs, the urinary bladder is lined with transitional epithelial tissue that is able to stretch significantly to accommodate large volumes of urine. The transitional epithelium also provides protection to the underlying tissues from acidic or alkaline urine. Surrounding the mucosal layer is the submucosa, a layer of connective tissue with blood vessels and nervous tissue that supports and controls the surrounding tissue layers. The visceral muscles of the muscularis layer surround the submucosa and provide the urinary bladder with its ability to expand and contract. The muscularis is commonly referred to as the detrusor muscle and contracts during urination to expel urine from the body. The muscularis also forms the internal urethral sphincter, a ring of muscle that surrounds the urethral opening and holds urine in the urinary bladder. During urination, the