Morphometric Study of Pancreas in Human Fetuses

The pancreas arises from the endoderm as a dorsal and a ventral bud which fuse together to form the single organ. It extends transversely across the posterior abdominal wall from the duodenum to the spleen. Functionally, it is endocrine and exocrine. This study was undertaken to study the morphometry of human pancreas at different gestational age groups of normal, still born fetuses. Forty aborted human fetuses (25 male and 15 female) of 12-40 weeks gestational age with no obvious congenital abnormality were obtained. The fetuses were dissected and pancreas was removed. The length and weight of the pancreas as well as height of its head were noted. It was observed that there was increase in body weight and crown rump length with increasing gestational age. The average length of pancreas was 1.80 cm in 12 week and 4.70 cm in 40 week of gestation. The average height of pancreas head was 0.80 cm in the 12 and 2.70 cm in 40 week of gestation. The knowledge of development of pancreas helps in planning new therapeutic interventions in the treatment of various congenital and functional pancreatic anomalies.