🫁 Respiratory🟢 BasicLower Respiratory Tract

The Trachea and Bronchial Tree

The windpipe and the branching air tubes that carry air from the throat down into the lungs.

Key points

The trachea is a flexible tube kept open by C-shaped rings of cartilage, running from the larynx down into the chest.
It divides into the right and left main bronchi at a ridge called the carina, at about the level of the sternal angle.
The right main bronchus is wider, shorter and more vertical, so inhaled objects more often fall into it.
The bronchi divide again and again like a tree into smaller bronchi and bronchioles, ending in the air sacs where gas exchange happens.
The airway is lined by cells with tiny hairs and mucus that trap dirt and sweep it upward, a self-cleaning escalator.

Memory trick

The trachea is a C-ring tube that splits at the carina into the main bronchi (the right wider, shorter and more vertical, so inhaled objects go there); it branches like a tree to bronchioles and air sacs; a mucus-and-hair escalator cleans it.

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🫁 Respiratory🟢 BasicLower Respiratory Tract

The Trachea and Bronchial Tree

The windpipe and the branching air tubes that carry air from the throat down into the lungs.

Key points

The trachea is a flexible tube kept open by C-shaped rings of cartilage, running from the larynx down into the chest.
It divides into the right and left main bronchi at a ridge called the carina, at about the level of the sternal angle.
The right main bronchus is wider, shorter and more vertical, so inhaled objects more often fall into it.
The bronchi divide again and again like a tree into smaller bronchi and bronchioles, ending in the air sacs where gas exchange happens.
The airway is lined by cells with tiny hairs and mucus that trap dirt and sweep it upward, a self-cleaning escalator.

Memory trick

All of Anatomy More Respiratory