X CLOSE

Dissection of mediastinum and paravertebral structures

Upper thoracic part of right sympathetic trunk; intercostal vessels; azygos vein; right vagus nerve; pulmonary and esophageal plexuses

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 #128-4
Bassett ImageDiagram Image
Legend Image
Dissection of mediastinum and paravertebral structures
Upper thoracic part of right sympathetic trunk; intercostal vessels; azygos vein; right vagus nerve; pulmonary and esophageal plexuses
The tracheobronchial tree has been pulled forward and to the left and the esophagus has been rotated slightly to the left.
1 . Posterior mediastinal lymph node
2 . Rib III
3 . Sympathetic trunk
4 . Ramus communicans (aberrant rami similar to this, which cross a rib to the next lower intercostal nerve, are present in several places on both sides of this specimen)
5 . Thoracic ganglion
6 . Azygos vein (cut off)
7 . Ramus communicans
8 . Lymph vessel
9 . Intercostal artery and vein VI
10 . Greater splanchnic nerve
11 . Vagus nerve right (several esophageal and tracheal branches visible along course of nerve)
12 . Brachiocephalic trunk
13 . Thoracic cardiac nerve (these nerves also send branches into pulmonary plexus)
14 . Aortic arch
15 . Trachea
16 . Pulmonary plexus
17 . Inferior tracheobronchial lymph node
18 . Esophagus
19 . Thoracic aorta