Fallopian Tubes

About the Fallopian Tubes

The fallopian tubes, or uterine tubes, are a pair of slender muscular tubes extending from the upper corners of the uterus toward the ovaries. They are named after the sixteenth century Italian anatomist Gabriele Falloppio. Each tube has four parts: the funnel shaped infundibulum with finger like fimbriae that sweep the released egg into the tube, the wide ampulla, where fertilization usually occurs, the narrow isthmus, and the intramural part that passes through the uterine wall. Cilia lining the tube and contractions of its muscular wall move the egg or early embryo toward the uterus over several days. Scarring of the tubes, often after pelvic inflammatory disease caused by sexually transmitted infections such as chlamydia and gonorrhea, is a common cause of infertility and increases the risk of ectopic pregnancy, in which an embryo implants in the tube rather than the uterus, a potentially life threatening emergency. Research has shown that many high grade serous ovarian cancers originate in the fallopian tube.