ESOPHAGUS
- It is Collapsed at rest.
- Flat in the upper 2/3 & rounded in lower 1/3
- It is a musular tube (25 cm) that pushes the swallowed food to the stomach.
- It passes the phyrynx in the neck and stomach in the abdomin.
Starts at C6 vertebra as a continuation of the pharynx (at lower border of cricoid cartilage)
Ends at T11 vertebra (at the cardiac orifice of the stomach after passing through the diaphragm).
Parts of the Eosophagus:
1 Cervical part: from C6 - T
- ventrally: trachea
- dorsally: prevertebral layer
- laterally: cervical - neuro - vascular bundle
2 Thoracic part from T2 - T10
- ventrally: trachea
- laterally: vagus nerves
- right side: zygous vein
- left side: descending aorta
- dorsally: thoracic aorta & thoacic duct.
3 Abdominal part from T10 - T11
- ventrally: oesophagus is in contact with the liver.
- dorsally: diaphragm.
Course of the esophagus:
- It passes through the thorax in front of the vertebral column.
- As it approches the diaphragm it goes anterioly and to the left.
* The esophagous passes through the muscular part of the diaphragm at the level of T10 vertebra.