The ileocolic lymph nodes, from ten to twenty in number, form a chain around the ileocolic artery

Ileocolic artery

The ileocolic artery is the lowest branch arising from the concavity of the superior mesenteric artery.It passes downward and to the right behind the peritoneum toward the right iliac fossa, where it divides into a superior and an inferior branch; the inferior anastomoses with the end of the...

, but show a tendency to subdivision into two groups, one near the duodenum and another on the lower part of the trunk of the artery. Where the vessel divides into its terminal branches the chain is broken up into several groups, viz.:

• (a) ileal, in relation to the ileal branch of the artery;
• (b) anterior ileocolic, usually of three glands, in the ileocolic fold, near the wall of the cecum;
• (c) posterior ileocolic, mostly placed in the angle between the ileum and the colon, but partly lying behind the cecum at its junction with the ascending colon;
• (d) a single gland, between the layers of the mesenteriole of the vermiform process;
• (e) right colic, along the medial side of the ascending colon
  Ascending colon
  The ascending colon is smaller in caliber than the cecum.It passes upward, from its commencement at the cecum, opposite the colic valve, to the under surface of the right lobe of the liver, on the right of the gall-bladder, where it is lodged in a shallow depression, the colic impression; here it...
  
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