Reasons to Stop Smoking

I almost forgot: we removed the anterior ribs from our cadaver today and pulled out the lungs. Some people had absolutely gorgeous specimens, pink, pristine, fairly heavy, densely spongy with clearly defined lobes and nicely intact pleura. Our cadaver had massively swollen, deeply discoloured (basically black with particulates from some form of air pollution...smoking? city living? dunno) masses which were fused to his thoracic wall in multiple places. The lobes seemed to be completely grown together, the lung tissue itself was very spongy, but not densly so. It literally felt like one of those sponges you use to clean your dishes, very little mass to it. One of the lab techs came over and commented that the guy probably had very bad emphysema and likely had major breathing issues.

Nevertheless, it was very cool to get to see the inside of the chest. We're looking at the heart and surrounding tissues next week. We couldn't even see it this week, as it's encased in the mediastinum (a membranous structure which lies between the right and left lungs). We did get to see the exterior of the aorta though...it's huge! The walls are so thick that it is self-supporting, i.e., it is a rigid, tubular structure even when there's no fluid to hold it open, unlike the vast majority of arteries. It reminded me of a thick, plasticized cable...something you'd find in a machine, not a person. Hard to believe something so strong could ever rupture...but then, the pressure of blood passing through it must be phenomenal.