Anatomy study note · Thorax

Vagus nerve

The 10th cranial nerve (mixed), with the widest distribution of all. It supplies the external ear, pharynx, larynx, trachea and cervical oesophagus, and carries parasympathetic fibres to the thoracic organs and the gut as far as the splenic flexure.

Key points

• Left vagus → front of the oesophagus/stomach; right vagus → back.
• Left recurrent laryngeal hooks round the ligamentum arteriosum.
• Right recurrent laryngeal hooks round the right subclavian (neck).
• Parasympathetic: slows the heart, constricts bronchi.
• Vagus: 4th and 6th arches.
• Motor nuclei: basal lamina. Sensory nuclei: alar lamina.
• Parasympathetic: craniosacral outflow.
• Nerve: epineurium → perineurium (blood–nerve barrier) → endoneurium.

The full note in the atlas also covers

Course · Branches · Histology · Development · Clinical notes

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Written from

• Snell’s Clinical Anatomy by Regions, 10th ed., ch. 5, PDF pp. 551, 652–653; ch. 12, PDF pp. 1678–1680, 1790–1792
• Inderbir Singh’s Human Embryology, ch. 17, PDF pp. 312, 318; ch. 9, PDF pp. 120, 125; ch. 15, PDF pp. 251–252
• BRS Cell Biology & Histology, 7th ed., ch. 9, PDF pp. 163–166, 166, 168, 171–172

More from the thorax

• Aortic valve
• Arch of aorta
• Ascending aorta
• Azygos vein
• Brachiocephalic artery
• Brachiocephalic veins
• Bronchopulmonary segments
• Coronary sinus and cardiac veins
• Costal cartilages
• Descending thoracic aorta
• Diaphragm
• Esophagus

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