Topic summary
Chest wall
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Thoracic wall.
Structure
The chest wall has 10 layers, namely (from superficial to deep) skin (epidermis and dermis), superficial fascia, deep fascia and the invested extrinsic muscles (from the upper limbs), intrinsic muscles associated with the ribs (three layers of intercostal muscles), endothoracic fascia and parietal pleura. However, the extrinsic muscular layers vary according to the region of the chest wall. For example, the front and back sides may include attachments of large upper limb muscles like pectoralis major or latissimus dorsi, while the sides only have serratus anterior.The thoracic wall consists of a bony framework that is held together by twelve thoracic vertebrae posteriorly which give rise to ribs that encircle the lateral and anterior thoracic cavity. The first nine ribs curve around the lateral thoracic wall and connect to the manubrium and sternum.