Topographic-anatomic peculiarities of the thoracic part of the trachea in human fetuses aged 4-6 months

Abstract

Introduction. Rapid development of perinatal medicine has led to an increase in the number of fetal surgical interventions performed intrauterine, on the trachea and principal bronchi. Therefore, topographic and anatomical peculiarities of the trachea and its morphometric parameters in the human fetuses of different ages cause interest of morphologists and surgeons. The objective of the study was to determine the skeleto-topic nature and the morphometric indices of the thoracic part of the trachea in the human fetuses aged 4-6 months. Materials and methods. Anatomical study of typical and variant anatomy of the thoracic part of the trachea involved 37 specimens of human fetuses, of 81.0-230.0 mm of crown-rump length, by means of macro-microscopic preparation and morphometry. Results. In the examined 4-6-month-old human fetuses, trachea within the superior mediastinum is predominantly placed in the median sagittal plane (25 cases, 67.6%), or is slightly replaced to the right (9 observations, 24.3%) or to the left (3 cases, 8.1%) from the median sagittal plane. In the fetuses aged 4-6 months the bifurcation of the trachea into the principal bronchi, is usually skeleton-topically determined at the level of the body of the II thoracic vertebra, and the pulmonary trunk bifurcates into the pulmonary arteries at the level of the body of the III thoracic vertebra. An intensive increase in the length and external diameter of the trachea within the superior mediastinum is noted in the fetuses aged 4 and 6 months. During the 4th-6th month of intrauterine development, these morphometric indices of the thoracic part of the trachea are 1.6 times higher.

Keywords

• trachea
• skeletotopy
• syntopy
• principal bronchi
• fetus