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pleura

File:2313_The_Lung_Pleurea.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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The pleurae (: pleura) are the two flattened pleural sacs filled with pleural fluid that surround each lung, and lines their surrounding tissues. They are formed of two opposing layers of serous membrane that separate the lungs from the mediastinum, the inside surfaces of the surrounding chest walls and the diaphragm. Although wrapped onto itself resulting in a double layer, each lung is surrounded by a single, continuous pleural membrane.

Key facts

Anatomy.Name
Pleura
Anatomy.Latin
pleurae pulmonarius
Anatomy.Image
File:2313 The Lung Pleurea.jpg
Anatomy.Caption
Lung detail showing the pleurae. The pleural cavity is exaggerated since normally there is no space between the pulmonary pleurae.
Anatomy.Nerve
Intercostal nerves, phrenic nerves, vagus nerve
Anatomy.System
Respiratory system

via Wikipedia infobox

Research

22,385 papers

via PubMed

Wikidata facts

Image
2313 The Lung Pleurea.jpg
Show 6 more facts
Commons gallery
Pleura
Commons category
Pleura
different from
pleural cavity
NCI Thesaurus ID
C12469
topic's main category
Category:Pleura
described by source
The Nuttall Encyclopædia
Sources (5)

via Wikidata · CC0

~12 min read

Encyclopedic overview

11 sections
Contents
  • Anatomy
  • Visceral pleura
  • Parietal pleura
  • Neurovascular supply
  • Development
  • Function
  • Clinical significance
  • See also
  • References
  • Sources
  • External links

The pleurae (: pleura) are the two flattened pleural sacs filled with pleural fluid that surround each lung, and lines their surrounding tissues. They are formed of two opposing layers of serous membrane that separate the lungs from the mediastinum, the inside surfaces of the surrounding chest walls and the diaphragm. Although wrapped onto itself resulting in a double layer, each lung is surrounded by a single, continuous pleural membrane.

The pleura that covers the surface of each lung is the visceral pleura. The pleura typically dips between the lobes of the lung as fissures, and is formed by the invagination of lung buds into each thoracic sac during embryonic development. The pleura that lines the chest wall, is the parietal pleura.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “pleura” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (5)