Dissection of mediastinum and paravertebral structures
Superior mediastinum.
Stanford holds the copyright to the David L. Bassett anatomical images and has assigned
Creative Commons license Attribution-Share
Alike 4.0 International to all of the images.
For additional information regarding use and permissions,
please contact Dr. Drew Bourn at dbourn@stanford.edu.
Image #127-6
Dissection of mediastinum and paravertebral structures
Superior mediastinum.
The lymphatic structures have been removed from along the trachea so that the cardiac and pulmonary nerves can be more readily visualized. Filaments of the cardiac plexus have been cut off and laid across the pulmonary artery in such a way that their various connections are more clearly visible. The pulmonary arteries have been retracted downward.
- Anterior scalene muscle
- Right subclavian artery
- Common carotid artery
- Right vagus nerve
- Middle cervical cardiac nerve (this filament can be traced upward between the arteries to a point where it joins the cervical sympathetic trunk above the stellate ganglion)
- Upper pointer: Inferior cardiac branch of vagus nerve Lower pointer: Bronchial branch vagus nerve
- Ascending aorta
- Cardiac plexus (deep portion)
- Pulmonary plexus
- Left pointer: Right main bronchus Right pointer: Tracheobronchial lymph node inferior
- Right pulmonary artery
- Cricoid cartilage
- Trachea
- Esophagus
- Recurrent laryngeal nerve
- Cervical nerve VII
- Stellate ganglion
- Cervical cardiac nerve
- Vertebral artery
- Inferior cervical cardiac nerve
- Left pointer: Left common carotid artery Right pointer: Subclavian artery
- Left vagus nerve
- Upper pointer: Recurrent laryngeal nerve Lower pointer: Ligamentum arteriosum
- Left main bronchus
- Filament of pulmonary plexus