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Pericardium



Pericardium
Posterior wall of the pericardial sac, showing the lines of reflection of the serous pericardium on the great vessels.
A transverse section of the thorax, showing the contents of the middle and the posterior mediastinum. The pleural and pericardial cavities are exaggerated since normally there is no space between parietal and visceral pleura and between pericardium and heart Paricardium is also known as cariac epidemis.
Gray's subject #137 524
Artery pericardiacophrenic artery
MeSH Pericardium

The pericardium is a double-walled sac that contains the heart and the roots of the great vessels.

Layers

There are two layers to the pericardial sac: the fibrous pericardium and the serous pericardium. The serous pericardium, in turn, is divided into two layers, the parietal pericardium, which is fused to and inseparable from the fibrous pericardium, and the visceral pericardium, which is in fact epicardium, or the outer surface of the heart.

In between the parietal and visceral pericardial layers there is a potential space called the pericardial cavity. It is normally lubricated by a film of pericardial fluid. Too much fluid in the cavity (such as in a pericardial effusion) can result in pericardial tamponade, compression of the heart within the pericardial sac.

Diseases/Abnormalities

Additional images

 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Pericardium". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.
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