Why does the bronchial tree branch

This muscular wall can change the size of the tubing to increase or decrease airflow through the tube. In contrast to the conducting zone, the respiratory zone includes structures that are directly involved in gas exchange.

The respiratory zone begins where the terminal bronchioles join a respiratory bronchiole, the smallest type of bronchiole Figure , which then leads to an alveolar duct, opening into a cluster of alveoli. Bronchial Tree The trachea branches into the right and left primary bronchi at the carina. Respiratory Zone In contrast to the conducting zone, the respiratory zone includes structures that are directly involved in gas exchange. Anterior view of the larynx, trachea, and bronchial tree: Note the main divisions of the bronchi.

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Bronchial Tree. Last update:. April 20, am. Table of Contents. Share this concept:. Share on facebook. Share on twitter. Share on linkedin. Share on reddit. Share on email. Let me just finish it off right there. So we have our right and left lung, right? These are the two lungs, and our air is going to just kind of slowly pass down-- our molecule of oxygen is going to pass down, and it's going to go either into the right lung or the left lung.

Now here, I want to make sure I just take a quick pause and show you the naming structure. And the important word of the day is the bronchi, which alludes to one, or-- sorry, I screwed it up already-- the bronchi, which alludes to more than one-- sorry about that-- and bronchus, which alludes to one. So bronchi means more than one and bronchus means one. So just keep track of these letters, I and U-S. So if we say that, for example, we are going into this area right here.

Let me just choose a new color so it's really clear. This will be our main. If we go into this spot-- let's say our air molecule or our oxygen molecule goes this way-- then we would say it's in our left main-- I'm just going to underline as I go-- left main bronchus. That's what we'd call that. And then if it went further, let's say it went down here, then instead of calling it main, I would call it the lobar. That's the word here. So I'd say it's my left lobar bronchus. And then if I wanted to go a little bit further, I could say well now this is my segmental, segmental.

So these are the words that we use, and this final one would be then my left segmental bronchus. And of course, if we want to talk about two of them, let's say I want to talk about both this guy and this guy, then I would say those are my right segmental bronchi, because now I have to use the top word because it's plural. So that's the naming structure. And another kind of important naming structure you'll sometimes see is primary bronchus, secondary bronchus, and segmental, they call tertiary bronchus.

So you'll see either one of those, but I'm going to stick to main, lobar, and segmental because I think it's a little bit easier and more intuitive to remember it that way. Now, there are a couple of important, interesting things happening already. So right here, this notch or this point right here, this is our carina. This is our carina. So at the carina, you have your break between the right and left main bronchus.

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