The inferior thoracic aperture is much larger than the superior thoracic aperture. In layman's terms, it is the round opening whose edges are the lowest ribs. It is closed by the diaphragm, which separates the thoracic and abdominal cavities.
The inferior thoracic aperture is bounded by:
- the 12th thoracic vertebra posteriorly,
- 11th and 12th pairs of ribs laterally,
- costal cartilages of ribs 7 through 10 anteriorly,
- and the xiphisternal joint - (i.e.: the articulation between the xiphoid process and the inferior border of the sternal body) anteriorly.
Structures passing through the inferior thoracic aperture between the thorax and abdomen include the inferior vena cava and esophagus, both of which pass through the diaphragm, and the abdominal aorta and thoracic duct which pass posterior to the diaphragm through the aortic hiatus.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Famous quotes containing the words inferior and/or aperture:
“He who is conversant with the supernal powers will not worship these inferior deities of the wind, waves, tide, and sunshine. But we would not disparage the importance of such calculations as we have described. They are truths in physics because they are true in ethics.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Animals used to provide a lowlife way to kill and get away with it, as they do still, but, more intriguingly, for some people they are an aperture through which wounds drain. The scapegoat of olden times, driven off for the bystanders’ sins, has become a tender thing, a running injury. There, running away ... is me: hurt it and you are hurting me.”
—Edward Hoagland (b. 1932)