00:00
So let's break down the trachea. We've nicknamed it the
windpipe. You hear a lot of people call
that like "Ohhh got something stuck in my windpipe." That's
what we're talking about. But look
at our graphic. Okay, it looks like a lot of words but it's
really well done to help you have this
clarified in your mind. Now look there, we have it labeled
the larynx. Right? And that's equally
right around where your Adam's apple is. Now an Adam's apple
is much more predominant in
male patients than it would be in female patients, but you
get the idea of what an Adam's
apple is. Now you have the tracheal cartilage. Remember
that's going to help keep that kind
of stiff and keep it open, that's a good thing. The trachea
where it splits apart, we've got the
primary bronchi. So the bronchi are the bigger tubes,
remember they've got that cartilage in
them that helps keep them open and the primary bronchi go
into both the right and the left
lung. And then you'll see we have the secondary bronchi.
That just means same tubes, getting
a little smaller, little further into the lung tissue. Now
on the left side, we've labeled it for
you larynx, trachea and then you just see that labeled on
there on the lung. So, pause for just
a minute before we walk through the key points. Pause the
video, take your finger, trace over
those different structures, make sure you're very clear
where they are. This will make it much
easier going through the rest of the video. Okay, that was
time well invested. Now that you
have that anatomy refreshed in your mind, let's take a look
at some of the key points. So that
trachea or windpipe is about 4-5 inches long or 10-12.5 cm.
Now it's a cylinder and it's less
than 1 inch or 2.5 cm in diameter. That's why if someone has
a foreign object lodged in there
like food or if a child, whose windpipe is even smaller,
swallowed something like a toy you can
end up in a real life threatening emergency. Now, the
trachea or the windpipe sits right in front
of the esophagus so that's important to keep in mind when
you're dealing with anatomy that
the trachea is right here external in the neck. Right? So
it's in front of the esophagus. It also
begins just under the larynx and you can see that in the
picture and it runs down behind the
sternum. Okay, so now we're pretty well oriented to the
trachea, to the windpipe, and the
different parts of the airway initially. Now the trachea has
these incomplete rings of hyaline
cartilage and smooth muscle. That's good, helps it to be
stiff and strong and that's a good
thing. It divides, as you see in the picture, into those 2
smaller tubes, we call them bronchi.
02:56
There is 1 for the right lung and 1 for the left lung and
those go down deep into the tissue of
the lungs. Now, let's look at how the cells, the cilia, the
cartilage, and the cough, how this all
works because the trachea is lying with this mucus-producing
goblet cells in these ciliated
epithelia. So epithelia is a type of the cell but they also
have cilia. So, why is this such a cool
protective feature? Well, the smooth muscle can contract and
that decreases the trachea's
diameter and it adds force to it in exhale. Why is that
important? Well it's pretty impressive
that you need to get something out of that airway whether
it's a foreign object or just a bunch
of mucus field, right, that needs to be expelled out. Then
you wanted to be able to contract
down, it help add force to the exhale, we call that a cough.
So the forced exhalation helps us
get rid of mucus when we cough. Well, no one likes to really
cough that stuff up, but here's why
it matters. You know how it protects. Right? We did talk
about how mucus keeps that lining
nice and smooth and moist so it doesn't dry out. It also
collects things, right, and moves it up
towards with a whole purpose of getting it out of your body.
So coughing is good, we need to
clear excess mucus, we want to clear particles and things
that don't belong in your body so a
good, strong, and cough is really important. After a patient
has had surgery and they have
been immobile for a while, we want to make sure we turn
cough and deep breathe with them
because that helps keep those airways opened and functioning
well. So remember those cilia.
04:38
I just want to point that back out. We talked about it when
we remind you again it's those cilia
that move the foreign particles that are trapped in the
mucus up toward the pharynx. Now
picture in your mind where is that. Right. That's in the
back of your throat and then it can be
coughed out and expelled from the body or sometimes people
could swallow it. Right? The
epiglottis flaps back and forth, it's up in the pharynx,
they can also swallow it down in their
stomach and then it's going to be eaten up by the gastric
acid. I know that's not really socially
acceptable to talk about that, but that is one mechanism and
the way it can function. Now
we're comparing the right side to the left side, they are
not identical twins. The right lung is
larger than the left and the right has 3 lobes, the left has
2 lobes. Now, the reason this is
it will be easier for you to remember if you look at the
orientation of the lungs and the heart.
05:33
You see that the left side is smaller because that's what
its job is is to accommodate the heart
to make room for the heart. So the left lobe has fewer
lobes, it has 2; the right has 3; and the
left side is a little bit smaller because it's making room
for your heart.