Anterior mediastinum

Anterior mediastinum
Mediastinum
A transverse section of the thorax, showing the contents of the middle and the posterior mediastinum. The pleural and pericardial cavities are exaggerated since normally there is no space between parietal and visceral pleura and between pericardium and heart.
Latin	mediastinum anterius
Gray's	subject #239 1092

The anterior mediastinum exists only on the left side where the left pleura diverges from the mid-sternal line.

It is narrow, above, but widens out a little below.

Boundaries

It is bounded:

• in front by the sternum
• laterally by the pleurae
• posteriorly by the pericardium
• anteriorly by the left Transversus thoracis and the fifth, sixth, and seventh left costal cartilages

Contents

It contains:

• a quantity of loose areolar tissue
• some lymphatic vessels which ascend from the convex surface of the liver
• two or three anterior mediastinal lymph nodes
• the small mediastinal branches of the internal mammary artery
• Thymus (involuted in adults)

See also

• mediastinum
• thoracic plane

External links

• thoraxlesson4 at The Anatomy Lesson by Wesley Norman (Georgetown University) - "Anterior Mediastinum"

This article was originally based on an entry from a public domain edition of Gray's Anatomy. As such, some of the information contained within it may be outdated.

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