hello all dr. Alsup here and we will be reviewing the visceral components of the anterior neck with
two very important endocrine glands or types of endocrine glands and a quick review of the
location of the trachea so let's get right into it we will start with the thyroid gland and we
are looking at a straight anterior view with all the infrahyoid or strap muscles removed you can
see the carotid sheath contents on either side and right here in the middle is this butterfly
shaped thyroid gland I think glands are pretty distinctive in appearance they are typically
hard to mistake for muscle or neurovascular structures in fact you'll often see a large
amount of vascular structures either heading towards or away from them because of their very
robust blood supply the thyroid gland is composed of two lobes so you can see these on either side a
right and a left connected by a central isthmus or kind of a pinched in area of the thyroid gland now
around 50% of people have what's referred to as an accessory or a pyramidal lobe this individual does
not have one but it would look like an extension of the thyroid gland parenchyma or tissue
extending up from the thyroid gland sometimes all the way up to the hyoid bone so it would just look
like gland that is going to be in this region extending all the way it towards the hyoid bone
of course it doesn't have to be quite that long but sometimes you'll see it like that now in this
particular view the left thyroid gland has been reflected in order for us to have a clearer view
of the posterior thyroid this was done to have a better view of the parathyroid glands and you
can see those right here you can see two right there I have always found parathyroid glands to
be a little bit darker than the thyroid gland but not too much it can often be quite difficult to
which the parathyroid glands these glands may be found in a variety of locations that are most
typically located on the posterior aspect of the thyroid gland like we see here typically there
are four parathyroid glands with a superior pair so there'd be a superior one over here
if we reflected and a inferior pair but there certainly can be fewer or even more typically
it's these superior parathyroid glands that are the most constant in size and location with the
parathyroid gland reflected here you also have a better view of the trachea which you can see
right here so trachea is located right here the trachea connects the larynx to the primary
bronchi of the lungs the trachea will begin at the inferior margin of the cricoid cartilage
around c6 so the cricoid cartilage is covered by the cricothyroid muscle here so you can't see
the cricoid cartilage very well but the trachea will begin inferior to that the trachea consists
of around 16 to 20 ish tracheal cartilages and you can see a few here it's gonna be this kind
of wider area right here with a little bit of gray you can see them kind of throughout they
are often described as C shaped so incomplete posteriorly and these cartilages are connected
by fibroelastic connective tissues and I think you can see a little bit of that connective
tissue clearly here and then then you're getting into the cartilages so this whole
complex of the the connective tissue as well as the cartilages will make up the trachea
all right so this should cover us regarding the visceral structures associated with the
anterior neck always feel free to reach out with any questions and thank you for your attention