thoracic cavity

the thoracic cavity (chest) and the relations of the major vessels and organs are tricky to remember, so when studying the region (again, medical education is a lot of repetition), I made a model in 2d from card.

The background (black on white) is the vertebral column (spine) and the first and second ribs.

In front of this lies the oesophagus (gullet) in orange which is only visible as a thin line to the left of the trachea (windpipe, in black and white) here, but it passes down through the diaphragm into the abdomen where it is obvious.

I said to the left, which is true in anatomical terms, it's the patient's left -so it's on the right of the picture. Simple huh?

The threads are nerves, green is the vagus which runs down over the stomach but also throws a looping branch up under the arch of the aorta which runs back up to the voicebox - my favourite nerve -the recurrent laryngeal nerve. The orange threads are the phrenic nerves which move the diaphragm.

The red arch is the arch of the aorta taking all of the blood form the heart to the body. The light blue are the inferior and superior venae cava, returning the blood to the heart.

The black and dark blue are the pulmonary arteries and veins, to and from the lungs respectively and the black blob is the heart itself.

I suppose this must have worked as an aide-memoire 'cos I can still remember all this rubbish, although I wasn't asked any of it!

It's not the most polished of presentations because I wasted enough valuable revision time as it was on the thing.