Bladder

NIDDK says the bladder sits in the pelvis between the hip bones. The ureters, thin tubes of muscle, connect the kidneys to the bladder and carry urine to it, and the urethra is a tube located at the bottom of the bladder. MedlinePlus describes the bladder as a hollow organ in the lower abdomen.

According to NIDDK, the muscles of the bladder wall remain relaxed while the bladder fills with urine, and the sphincter muscles remain contracted to keep urine in the bladder. As the bladder fills up, signals sent to the brain tell a person to find a toilet soon. To urinate, the brain signals the sphincters to relax and then signals the muscular bladder wall to tighten, squeezing urine through the urethra and out of the bladder.

MedlinePlus lists some common conditions that can affect the bladder: cystitis, inflammation of the bladder, often from an infection; urinary incontinence, loss of bladder control; overactive bladder, a condition in which the bladder squeezes urine out at the wrong time; interstitial cystitis, a chronic problem that causes bladder pain and frequent, urgent urination; and bladder cancer. The tests it mentions include an examination of the bladder wall with a scope called a cystoscope.

Vejiga is the word used by MedlinePlus en español, the Spanish pages of NIDDK and the National Cancer Institute's Spanish dictionary. It is feminine: la vejiga. The NCI dictionary adds that the organ is also called vejiga urinaria. The adjective vesicales appears on MedlinePlus en español, which gives enfermedades vesicales as another name for enfermedades de la vejiga (bladder diseases).

The neighboring parts of the urinary tract, las vías urinarias, are los riñones (kidneys), los uréteres (ureters) and la uretra (urethra); the NCI dictionary's illustration captions say aparato urinario. NIDDK calls bladder emptying la micción and uses the verb orinar, and urine is la orina. Condition names that contain the word include vejiga hiperactiva (overactive bladder) and cáncer de vejiga (bladder cancer). Cistitis, an inflammation of the bladder, and cistoscopio, the instrument used to examine the bladder wall, do not contain the word vejiga.