Pulmonary plexus
Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data
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 disclosuresAt the time the article was last revised Jason Ma had no financial relationships to ineligible companies to disclose.
View Jason Ma's current disclosuresThe 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 fibers 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
References
- 1. Moore KL, Agur AMR, Dalley AF. Clinically oriented anatomy. LWW. ISBN:1451119453. Read it at Google Books - Find it at Amazon
- 2. Last's anatomy, regional and applied. Churchill Livingstone. ISBN:044304662X. Read it at Google Books - Find it at Amazon
- 3. Susan Standring. Gray's Anatomy. ISBN: 9780702052309
- 4. Robert H. Whitaker, Neil R. Borley. Instant Anatomy. ISBN: 9780632054039
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