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Lower lobe of right lung: anatomy, location and function

The lower lobe of the right lung lies below and behind the oblique fissure. It forms the back and the base of the right lung, resting on the right dome of the diaphragm above the liver. Its air spaces take part in gas exchange. Air reaches it through the right lower lobe bronchus, which arises from the bronchus intermedius.

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Highlighted in the model: Lower lobe of right 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 right lung at a glance

Also called
Right inferior lobe
What it is
The lower lobe of the right lung lies below and behind the oblique fissure. It forms the back and the base of the right lung, resting on the right dome of the diaphragm above the liver.
Location
At the back it reaches up to about the T4 spinous process, where the oblique fissure begins. The right dome of the diaphragm sits higher than the left over the liver, so the base of the right lung is more deeply hollowed. In quiet breathing the lower border lies at about the sixth rib in front, the eighth rib at the side and the 10th rib behind.
Function
Its air spaces take part in gas exchange. Air reaches it through the right lower lobe bronchus, which arises from the bronchus intermedius.
Body system
Respiratory · right side only
FMA ID
FMA7337 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)

Key facts

  • It has five bronchopulmonary segments: superior, medial basal, anterior basal, lateral basal and posterior basal.
  • The right lung as a whole has ten segments: three in the upper lobe, two in the middle lobe and five in the lower lobe.

Clinical relevance

The right main bronchus is wider and more vertical than the left, so inhaled foreign bodies more often enter the right lung.

Structures next to the lower lobe of right 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 right lung (FMA7337). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
  2. TeachMeAnatomy. The Lungs.
  3. Radiopaedia. Bronchopulmonary segmental anatomy.
  4. Radiopaedia. Oblique fissure.
  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.