The anococcygeal body (anococcygeal ligament, or anococcygeal raphe) is a fibrous median

raphe Raphe (; from Greek ῥαφή, "seam"Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). ''A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie.'' Oxford: Clarendon Press.) has several diffe ...

in the floor of the

pelvis The pelvis (plural pelves or pelvises) is the lower part of the trunk, between the abdomen and the thighs (sometimes also called pelvic region), together with its embedded skeleton (sometimes also called bony pelvis, or pelvic skeleton). The ...

, which extends between the

coccyx The coccyx ( : coccyges or coccyxes), commonly referred to as the tailbone, is the final segment of the vertebral column in all apes, and analogous structures in certain other mammals such as horses. In tailless primates (e.g. humans and othe ...

and the margin of the

anus The anus (Latin, 'ring' or 'circle') is an opening at the opposite end of an animal's digestive tract from the mouth. Its function is to control the expulsion of feces, the residual semi-solid waste that remains after food digestion, which, d ...

. It is composed of fibers of the

levator ani muscle The levator ani is a broad, thin muscle group, situated on either side of the pelvis. It is formed from three muscle components: the pubococcygeus, the iliococcygeus, and the puborectalis. It is attached to the inner surface of each side of t ...

that unite with the muscle of the opposite side, muscle fibres from

external anal sphincter The external anal sphincter (or sphincter ani externus ) is a flat plane of skeletal muscle fibers, elliptical in shape and intimately adherent to the skin surrounding the margin of the anus. Anatomy The external anal sphincter measures about 8 ...

, and

fibrous connective tissue Connective tissue is one of the four primary types of animal tissue, along with epithelial tissue, muscle tissue, and nervous tissue. It develops from the mesenchyme derived from the mesoderm the middle embryonic germ layer. Connective tissue is ...

.Daftary, Shirish; Chakravarti, Sudip (2011). Manual of Obstetrics, 3rd Edition. Elsevier. pp. 1-16. . The fibers of the levator ani pass downward and backward to the middle line of the floor of the pelvis; the most posterior are inserted into the side of the last two segments of the

; those placed more anteriorly unite with the muscle of the opposite side, in the anococcygeal body.

References

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Image at rsnajnls.org

(Peer-reviewed medical chapter, available free online at eMedicine) Musculoskeletal system {{musculoskeletal-stub

See also

References

External links