Fascia

Fascia ( borrowed from Latin fascia for " band ", " bundle " ) refers to the soft tissue component of the connective tissue that penetrate the whole body as an enveloping and connecting voltage network. This includes all collagenous fibrous connective tissue, especially the joints and organ capsules, tendons plates ( aponeuroses ), Muskelsepten, ligaments, tendons, retinacula (so-called " chains " for example on the feet ) and the " actual fascia " in the shape of two-dimensional solid connective tissue such as the plantar fascia of the foot.

This body- wide network receives the structural integrity. That is, it ensures that the parts of the body are assembled to a whole remain. It supports the body, protects him and acts like an elastic shock absorber during movement. Fascia play an essential role in hemodynamic and biochemical processes and form a matrix for intercellular communication. They have a crucial role in the defense of the body against pathogens and infections. Following injury fascia form the basis for the healing process of the tissue.

Some authors use occasionally closer Fasziendefinition that only two-dimensional structures are called fascia. Depending on the author then include aponeuroses, retinacula, the superficial fascia ( subcutaneous adipose tissue ) or the intramuscular connective tissue with it - or not. Since the first international Fascia Research Congress, the leading experts in this field have agreed to the above formulated broader Faszienbegriff. This new definition of fascia is essentially congruent with what the layman means by " connective tissue " (in contrast to physicians, for example, bone, cartilage or connective tissue are also blood ).

The three layers of fascia

Superficial fascia

Superficial fascia located in the subcutaneous tissue in most parts of the body and mingle with the reticular layer of the dermis ( the dermis). You are on the top of the sternocleidomastoid muscle, the neck and over the sternum ( sternum). They consist mainly of loose connective tissue and adipose tissue. In addition to its subcutaneous presence, this type of fascia surrounds organs, glands and neurovascular channels and fills in many other places open space. It stores fat and water; it acts as a passage for lymph, nerve, and blood vessels, as well as a buffer and attenuator. Since a considerable part of the connective tissue cells of this layer has contact with each other, they also suspected that this layer could serve as a body -wide non- neural communication network.

Deep fascia

Deep Fascia is the dense fiber-rich connective tissue layers and strands which penetrate the muscles, bones, nerves and blood vessels of the body and enclose. Compressed as a local load conditions and organized this tissue network as tendons plates ( aponeuroses ), large areal fascia (like the fascia lata or the plantar fascia ), as ligaments (bands ), tendons, Retinaculae ( shackles ), joint capsules or as Muskelsepten. As a high intra- fourth periosteum wrapped this tissue, the bone, as the perichondrium cartilage tissue than tunica externa blood vessels and perineurium as the nerves. Furthermore, all the muscle fibers are enveloped by a layer endomysium, perimysium while summarizes single muscle fiber bundles and finally encloses the whole Epimysium muscle. The high proportion of collagen fibers gives these fabrics a high viscoelastic tensile strength.

The fascia of the diaphragm

The aponeurosis of the musculus obliquus externus abdominis ( external obliques )

The deep ligaments of the arch of the foot

Visceral fascia

Visceral fascia serve as suspension and embedding of the internal organs and wrap it in layers of connective tissue membranes. Each of these organs is surrounded by a double layer of serous membranes. The outermost wall of an organ is called " parietal layer ", whereas the skin of the organ " visceral layer " is called. The institutions have specific names for their visceral fascia. In the brain, they are called the meninges, in the heart pericardium, lung, pleura, and peritoneum in the abdomen.

The pleura ( )

The pericardium ( pericardium ) and the left dome of the diaphragm

The peritoneum ( peritonitis ) with the renal fascia

Fascial dynamics

Fascia is very adaptable tissue parts. Due to their high viscoelasticity is superficial fascia can stretch considerably to include, for example, body fat associated with normal or prenatal weight gain. Visceral fascia are generally less stretchable than the superficial fascia. Due to their connecting function for the organs their voltage must remain constant. If they were too loose, this would lead to an incident of the institution; would it be hypertonic, it would limit the organ mobility. Deep fascia are also less extensible than superficial fascia. They are less perfused but highly innervated with sensory receptors, the pain signal ( nociceptors ), changes in movement ( proprioceptors ), changes of pressure and vibration ( mechanoreceptors ), changes in the chemical milieu ( chemoreceptors ) and temperature variations ( thermal receptors). Many deep fascia are able to respond to an appropriate mechanical or chemical stimulation with contraction or relaxation as well as by a gradual structural reorganization of its internal components. Deep fascia have special smooth muscle -like stromal cells ( myofibroblasts ), which give them the ability to be able to actively contract similar to many viscera or blood vessels over a long time. The stiffness of a fascia apparently is related to the density of myofibroblasts. Thus one finds a particularly high myofibroblast density in both the palmar fibromatosis ( Dupuytren's contracture) as well as in pathological frozen shoulder ( frozen shoulder ).