Preface

The study of anatomy has changed enormously in the last few decades.

No longer do medical students have to spend long hours in the dissecting

room searching fruitlessly for the otic ganglion or tracing the small

arteries that form the anastomosis round the elbow joint. They now

need to know only the basic essentials of anatomy with particular

emphasis on their clinical relevance and this is a change that is long

overdue. However, students still have examinations to pass and in this

book the authors, a surgeon and an anatomist, have tried to provide a

means of rapid revision without any frills. To this end, the book follows

the standard format of the

at a Glance series and is arranged in short,

easily digested chapters, written largely in note form, with the appropriate

illustrations on the facing page. Where necessary, clinical applications

are included in italics and there are a number of clinical

illustrations. We thus hope that this book will be helpful in revising and

consolidating the knowledge that has been gained from the dissecting

room and from more detailed and explanatory textbooks.

The anatomical drawings are the work of Jane Fallows, with help

from Roger Hulley, who has transformed our rough sketches into the

finished pages of illustrations that form such an important part of the

book and we should like to thank her for her patience and skill in carrying

out this onerous task. Some of the drawings have been borrowed or

adapted from Professor Harold Ellis’s superb book

Clinical Anatomy

(9th edn) and we are most grateful to him for his permission to do this.

We should also like to thank Dr Mike Benjamin of Cardiff University

for the surface anatomy photographs. Finally, it is a pleasure to thank

all the staff at Blackwell Science who have had a hand in the preparation

of this book, particularly Fiona Goodgame and Jonathan Rowley.

Omar Faiz

David Moffat

The thoracic wall I
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Cervical

rib

Scalenus

anterior

Brachial

plexus

Subclavian

artery

Subcostal groove

Tubercle

Neck

Head

Facet for

vertebral body

First rib

Thoracic outlet (inlet)

Suprasternal notch

Manubrium

Third rib

Body of sternum

Intercostal

space

Xiphisternum

Costal cartilage

Floating ribs

Angle

Sternocostal

joint

6th

rib

Costochondral

joint

Shaft

Fig.1.2

A typical rib

Fig.1.1

The thoracic cage. The outlet (inlet)

of the thorax is outlined

Fig.1.4

Joints of the thoracic cage

Fig.1.3

Bilateral cervical ribs.

On the right side the brachial plexus

is shown arching over the rib and

stretching its lowest trunk

T5

T6

Demifacet for head of rib

Transverse process with

facet for rib tubercle

Costovertebral

joint

1 2

5

3

4

1

2

345

Costochondral joint

Sternocostal joint

Interchondral joint

Xiphisternal joint

Manubriosternal joint

(angle of Louis)

Clavicle

Costal margin

Costotransverse

joint