Cecum

The cecum or caecum is a pouch connected to the large intestine and the ileum. It is separated from the ileum by the ileocecal valve (ICV) or Bauhin's valve, and is considered to be the beginning of the large intestine and part of the colon. The cecum is present in mammals, birds, and some reptiles. Most herbivores have a relatively large cecum, and exclusive carnivores have a smaller cecum or none at all. This size difference results from the large number of bacteria in the cecum of herbivores, which aid in the enzymatic breakdown of plant materials such as cellulose. Carnivores, whose diets contain little or no plant material, have a reduced cecum, often partially or wholly replaced by the vermiform appendix. The appendix is a branch of the cecum. Like the human appendix, the cecum (from the Latin caecus meaning blind) was once believed to have no function. Unlike the appendix, however, there is no current debate about the use of the cecum.

The term cecum comes from the Latin, meaning blind gut or cul-de-sac. In dissections by the Greek philosophers, the connection between the ileum of the small intestines and the cecum was not fully understood. Most of the studies of the digestive tract were done on animals and the results were compared to human structures. The junction between the small intestines and the colon, called the ileocecal valve, is so small in some animals that it was not considered to be a connection between the small and large intestines. During a dissection, the colon could be traced from the rectum, to the sigmoid colon, through the descending, transverse, and ascending sections. The colon seemed to dead-end into the cecum, or cul-de-sac. However, the connection between the end of the small intestines, ileum, and the start of the colon, cecum are clearly understood, but the name has not changed.

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