Pulmonary trunk
The pulmonary trunk or main pulmonary artery is the solitary arterial output from the right ventricle, transporting deoxygenated blood to the lungs for oxygenation.
Gross anatomy
The pulmonary trunk is approximately 50 mm long and 30 mm wide (most authors use 29 mm width as the cut-off of normal 1). It arises as a direct superior continuation of the right ventricular outflow tract, separated by the pulmonary valve. As it ascends it slants posteriorly and to the left of the ascending aorta. With the ascending aorta, the pulmonary trunk is invested in a common sheath of serous visceral pericardium, anterior to the transverse pericardial sinus.
At the level of the transthoracic plane, the trunk emerges from the fibrous pericardium and divides into the longer right and shorter left pulmonary arteries in the concavity of the aortic arch, anterior to left main bronchus and to the left of the carina.
The left coronary artery passes between the pulmonary trunk of the left and the auricle of the left atrium.
Related pathology
Related Radiopaedia articles
Anatomy: Thoracic
- thoracic skeleton
- thoracic cage
- thoracic spine
- articulations
- muscles of the thorax
- diaphragm
- intercostal space
- intercostal muscles
- variant anatomy
- spaces of the thorax
- thoracic viscera
- tracheobronchial tree
-
lungs
-
bronchopulmonary segmental anatomy (Boyden Classification) (mnemonic)
- left lung
- right lung
- variant anatomy
- lung parenchyma
- hilum
- pleura
-
bronchopulmonary segmental anatomy (Boyden Classification) (mnemonic)
-
heart
- cardiac chambers
- heart valves
- pectinate muscles
- cardiac fibrous skeleton
- coronary arteries
- innervation of the heart
- fetal circulation
-
pericardium
- pericardial space
- oblique pericardial sinus
- transverse pericardial sinus
-
pericardial recesses
- aortic recesses
- pulmonic recesses
- postcaval recess
- pulmonary venous recesses
- pericardial ligaments
- epicardial fat pad
- esophagus
- thymus
- breast
- blood supply of the thorax
- arteries
-
thoracic aorta (development)
- ascending aorta
- aortic arch
- aortic isthmus
- descending aorta
- pulmonary trunk
-
thoracic aorta (development)
- veins
- superior vena cava (cavoatrial junction)
- inferior vena cava
-
coronary veins
- cardiac veins which drain into the coronary sinus
- great cardiac vein
- middle cardiac vein
- small cardiac vein
- posterior vein of the left ventricle
- vein of Marshall (oblique vein of the left atrium)
- anterior cardiac veins
- venae cordis minimae (smallest cardiac veins or thebesian veins)
- cardiac veins which drain into the coronary sinus
- pulmonary veins
- arteries
- lymphatics
- innervation of the thorax
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