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Esophageal plexus

Nerve network of the esophagus

Summary

Nerve network of the esophagus

Field	Value
Name	Esophageal plexus
Latin	plexus oesophageus
Image	Gray622.png
Caption	The tracheobronchial lymph glands. (Esophageal plexus visible at bottom center.)
Image2	Gray793.png
Caption2	Course and distribution of the glossopharyngeal, vagus, and accessory nerves.
BranchFrom	Vagus nerve and sympathetic trunk
BranchTo	Esophagus (same fibers make up the cardiac plexus)

The esophageal plexus (oesophageal plexus in British English) is formed by nerve fibers from two sources, branches of the vagus nerve, and visceral branches of the sympathetic trunk. The esophageal plexus and the cardiac plexus contain the same types of fibers and are both considered thoracic autonomic plexus.

Parasympathetic fibers

The vagus nerve delivers two fiber types to the esophageal plexus:

Parasympathetic preganglionic fibersThese fibers have their cell bodies located in the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus and they will synapse on the terminal ganglia in the walls of the esophagus.
Afferent fibersThese fibers are primarily concerned with autonomic reflexes and they have their cell bodies in the inferior ganglion of the vagus.

These vagal fibers in the esophageal plexus reform to make the anterior vagal trunk (left vagus) and the posterior vagal trunk (right vagus). Anterior and posterior being terms in relation to the esophagus, a mnemonic for which is "LARP": Left becomes Anterior, Right becomes Posterior.

Sympathetic fibers

The visceral branches of the sympathetic trunk also deliver two fiber types to the esophageal plexus:

Sympathetic postganglionic fibersThe cell bodies of these fibers are located in the sympathetic chain ganglia. The cell bodies of the preganglionic fibers, the first neuron of this two neuron chain, are located in the intermediolateral cell column (IMLCC) of the thoracic spinal cord.
Afferent fibersThese fibers are primarily concerned with pain and have cell bodies located in the dorsal root ganglion.

Additional images

File:Gray838.png|The right sympathetic chain and its connections with the thoracic, abdominal, and pelvic plexuses.

References

Rea, Paul. (2014-01-01). "Chapter 10 – Vagus Nerve". Academic Press.
Benarroch, E. E.. (2014-01-01). "Vagus Nerve (Cranial Nerve X)". Academic Press.
Longbottom, Jennie. (2010-01-01). "6 – The thoracic spine". Churchill Livingstone.
(2005-01-01). "Chapter 2 – Gross Anatomy of the Peripheral Nervous System". W.B. Saunders.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

nerve-plexus vagus-nerve nerves-of-the-head-and-neck

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