The Mediastinal Visceral Space: The Central Pathway for the Spread of Mediastinal Disease.

The connective tissue of the mediastinal visceral space extends from the neck through the chest and into the abdomen. This connective tissue encases the esophagus and tracheobronchial tree and is bounded by the perivisceral fascia. The continuous longitudinal and axial interconnection of the mediastinal visceral space accounts for commonly observed bidirectional pathways of disease through the chest. Disease patterns that seem counterintuitive when viewed through the lens of gross anatomy are more understandable in view of this knowledge. This article illustrates case examples of the spread of gas, fluid, fat and soft tissue mass through the mediastinal visceral space.

Informations de copyright

Indian Radiological Association. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ).

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Conflict of Interest None of the authors have any potential conflict of interest to disclose.