Esophagus
Oesophagus
DigestiveOrgansWhole body
- What it is
- Muscular tube carrying food from the pharynx to the stomach. It runs behind the trachea and the heart, slightly left of the midline, and passes through the esophageal hiatus of the diaphragm at T10 to reach the cardia of the stomach.
- Function
- Moves swallowed food down by waves of peristalsis; the lower esophageal sphincter keeps stomach acid from refluxing upward.
- Size
- About 25 cm long (C6 to T11), about 2 cm wide when distended; flattened front-to-back when empty.
- Clinical note
- It narrows at three points - the cricoid, where the aortic arch and left main bronchus cross it, and the diaphragm - where swallowed objects most often lodge.