Thorax 2: Thoracic cavity Flashcards
What is a pleural recess?
Where do they exist and what are they called?
What is the mediastinum?
What is it separated into?
What is the sternal angle?
What does the sternal angle divide?
What is the middle mediastinum made up of (nervous and vascular).
What vascular structures are in the anterior mediastinum?
What artery supplies the pericardium and parietal pleura?
Pericardiophrenic artery.
What are the different layers of the pericardium (superficial to deep)?
Fibrous: Tough - continuous with the tunica adventitia of the great vessels.
Parietal serous layer: fused with the fibrous layer.
Pericardial cavity: filled with serous fluid.
What is the nervous supply to the heart and pericardium?
Heart and visceral pericardium: The cardiac plexus (a visceral nerve plexus supplied by the vagus and sympathetic nerves). Sympathetic = cervical sympathetic trunks, parasympathetic = vagus nerve.
Parietal and fibrous pericardium: the phrenic nerves.
What are the different layers of the superior mediastinum?
Anterior part, middle part and posterior part.
What are the important layers of the anterior part of the superior mediastinum?
The thymus, the internal thoracic arteries and veins, and the superior vena cava.
Which vein, in the anteior part of the superior mediastinum, transverses the midline?
What are the vascular and nervous structures in the middle part of the superior mediastinum?
What structures are in the posterior aspect of the superior mediastinum?
The main structure is the trachea but a long with it is the recurrent laryngeal nerve.
What are the boundaries of the aortopulmonary window?
What is its significance? What is in the AP window?
What is in the posterior mediastinum?
Main thing is the oesophagus, paravertebral spaces (endothoracic fascia), the thoracic duct and the azygous system of veins, sympathetic trunks and the thoracic aorta.
What are the 3 narrowings of the oesophagus and their significance?
- Junction of the oesophagus with the pharynx.
- Where the aorta and trachea compress the oesophagus (T4/5)
- At the oesophageal hiatus (lower oesophageal sphincter).
What is posteior to the oesophagus and anterior to it?
Posterior: Spine
Anterior: Trachea, oblique sinus and left atrium.
What is the paravertebral space?
What is its boarders?
A wedge shaped space on either side of the vertebral column.
Anterior parietal pleura.
Posterior: the transverse process of vertebrae.
Medially: Oesophagus and trachea.
Laterally: Parietal pleura.
What is its clinical significance of the paravertebral space.
In order to do a paravertebral block which can block the entire spinal nerve. Cannot do an epidural in the thorax bc of the overlapping spinous processes.
What is the green tube, and the enlargement at the bottom.
Where do they drain lymph from?
Explain the azygous system of veins?
Right side: Azygous vein drains into SVC.
Left side: The hemiazygous and accessory hemiazygous drains into the azygous.
Hemiazygous and azygous are continuous with the ascending lumbar veins.
They also drain the posterior intercostal veins.
What are the sympathetic trunks?
What is the parasympathetic nerve supply which runs in the posterior mediastinum?
