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Lower lobe of left lung: anatomy, location and function

The lower lobe of the left lung lies below and behind the oblique fissure. It forms the back and the base of the left lung, resting on the left dome of the diaphragm. Its air spaces take part in gas exchange. Air reaches it through the left lower lobe bronchus, a branch of the left main bronchus.

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Highlighted in the model: Lower lobe of left lung. Click any part to read about it, or switch off “Highlight topic” to see the whole body. Use Male / Female to switch bodies. 3D data: BodyParts3D, © The Database Center for Life Science; knee ligaments, menisci, tonsils, palate and parotid glands from the Human Reference Atlas Visible Human Male model and female parts from its Visible Human Female model (HuBMAP / NIH); lung lobes built from the BodyParts3D chest; all CC BY 4.0; meshes simplified and recoloured. The default body is an adult male.

Lower lobe of left lung at a glance

Also called
Left inferior lobe
What it is
The lower lobe of the left lung lies below and behind the oblique fissure. It forms the back and the base of the left lung, resting on the left dome of the diaphragm.
Location
At the back it reaches up to the level of the T3 and T4 spinous processes, where the oblique fissure begins; from there the fissure runs down and forward to the sixth rib. In quiet breathing the lower border of the lung lies at about the sixth rib in the midclavicular line, the eighth rib in the mid-axillary line and the 10th rib at the back.
Function
Its air spaces take part in gas exchange. Air reaches it through the left lower lobe bronchus, a branch of the left main bronchus.
Body system
Respiratory · left side only
FMA ID
FMA7371 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)

Key facts

  • It has four bronchopulmonary segments: superior, anteromedial basal, lateral basal and posterior basal.
  • The left lung has eight segments rather than ten because two pairs share one bronchus: the apicoposterior segment above and the anteromedial basal segment here.

Structures next to the lower lobe of left lung

The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:

References

  1. Foundational Model of Anatomy: Lower lobe of left lung (FMA7371). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
  2. Radiopaedia. Bronchopulmonary segmental anatomy.
  3. Radiopaedia. Oblique fissure.
  4. TeachMeAnatomy. The Lungs.
  5. Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. Pulmonary anatomical principles: surface projections of the lungs.
  6. OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §22.1 Organs and Structures of the Respiratory System. Rice University, 2022.
  7. Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.
  8. Radiopaedia. Oblique fissure (surface anatomy used to place the oblique fissures in the 3D lungs).
  9. Radiopaedia. Horizontal fissure (surface anatomy used to place the horizontal fissure in the 3D right lung).

Related anatomy

Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.