Pulmonary plexus

Last revised by Jason Ma on 4 Apr 2023

Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data

Citation:

Hacking C, Ma J, Pulmonary plexus. Reference article, Radiopaedia.org (Accessed on 20 Apr 2024) https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-154497

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-154497

Permalink:

https://radiopaedia.org/articles/154497

rID:

154497

Article created:

14 Oct 2022, Craig Hacking ◉ ◈

Disclosures:

At the time the article was created Craig Hacking had the following disclosures:

Philips Australia, Paid speaker at Philips Spectral CT events (ongoing)

These were assessed during peer review and were determined to not be relevant to the changes that were made.

View Craig Hacking's current disclosures

Last revised:

4 Apr 2023, Jason Ma

Disclosures:

At the time the article was last revised Jason Ma had no financial relationships to ineligible companies to disclose.

View Jason Ma's current disclosures

Revisions:

5 times, by 2 contributors - see full revision history and disclosures

Systems:

Central Nervous System, Chest

Sections:

Anatomy

The pulmonary plexus is a network of autonomic nerves and ganglia situated at the pulmonary hila of each lung which regulates bronchial smooth muscle tone, submucosal glandular mucous secretion, vascular permeability and blood flow. It is derived from both the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Sensory fibres innervate the visceral pleura.

Gross anatomy

The pulmonary plexuses lie anterior and posterior to the bronchi and vessels at the hila as they enter each lung. The anterior component is smaller than the more dominant posterior component. Both are derived from lateral extensions of the superficial and deep cardiac plexuses.

The pulmonary plexuses are derived from sympathetic and parasympathetic inputs:

sympathetic: cardiac nerves originate from several sources
- indirectly from the cervical sympathetic ganglia via the cardiac plexus
- directly from the sympathetic cardiac nerves from the paravertebral ganglia of T2 to T6 segments of the spinal cord
parasympathetic: vagal trunks (cranial nerve X) via several cardiac nerves
- an upper cardiac nerve arises below the inferior cervical ganglion
- a lower branch arises in the root of the neck
- the nerves descend anterior to the brachiocephalic artery on the right and over the aortic arch on the left
- both nerves contribute to the cardiac plexus