Where is the mediastinum located
Mediastinum: Anatomy & Contents (preview) - Human Anatomy | Kenhub
if there's one thing we can say with
certainty about our bodies it's that
they're both organized and efficient in
their layout almost every structure in
our body big or small is
compartmentalized in one way or another
to ensure that everything stays where it
needs to be
one way which our body achieves this is
by the presence of defined spaces or
cavities for instance our cranial cavity
keeps our brain safely tucked in our
head and our abdominal cavity packs in
over seven meters of gut to absorb
anything worth taking from that burger
you had for lunch
our thoracic cavity is also an
interesting space with its bony cage
protecting your heart and lungs but
between our lungs is a special yet
somewhat anatomically complex region
whose name alone often rings horror to
anatomy students all over but don't fear
that's why we're here I assure you it's
safe to come out because today we're
going to master the anatomy of
the mediastinum so let's get down to
business and see what the fuss is all
about so we've established that the
mediastinum is located roughly on the
midline of our body between the pleural
cavities of the thorax
in our tutorial today we're going to be
looking at the anatomy of this space
with these two illustrations with both
right and left lateral views of the
thorax so let's take a moment to define
some of the anatomical boundaries of the
mediastinum as a whole anteriorly the
mediastinum is limited by the anterior
thoracic wall which is comprised of the
sternum as well as the costal cartilages
of the first two fifth ribs which you
can see here highlighted in green
the posterior boundary of the
mediastinum is marked by the vertebral
bodies of the superior thoracic
vertebrae knowing the anterior and
posterior borders of the mediastinum we
can now define the superior most border
of the mediastinum as the superior
thoracic aperture delineated by the
manubrium of the sternum following
around the superior border of the first
rib to the t1 vertebral body of course
laterally since the mediastinum is
located between the pleural sacs the
parietal pleura of each lung provides
the lateral border for each side of the
mediastinum and finally the inferior
boundary of the mediastinum is formed by
the respiratory diaphragm which you can
see just over here so to give our
borders a little bit more context let's
take an alternative look at the
mediastinum by looking at the diaphragm
from a superior perspective and heating
so he can get a better idea of the space
occupied by the mediastinum okay now
let's get into the nitty-gritty of what
the immediate einem is all about so as
typical and atomists we'd like to divide
things up into smaller divisions to make
it easier for us to explore and of
course the mediastinum is no different
so the mediastinum as a whole can be
subdivided into two major divisions and
firstly we have the superior mediastinum
which is found superior to an imaginary
line known as the thoracic plane
intersecting the sternal angle
anteriorly and the t45 intervertebral
discs posteriorly and of course if we
have a superior there must also be an
inferior mediastinum this video is not
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