Seventh costal cartilage at a glance
- Also called
- Costal cartilage 7
- What it is
- The bar of hyaline cartilage that connects the seventh rib to the sternum.
- Location
- Extends forward from the front end of rib 7. Joins the lower end of the body of the sternum, near the xiphisternal junction, and is the last cartilage to reach the sternum.
- Function
- Gives the rib cage elasticity, allowing the chest wall to expand during breathing.
- Body system
- Skeletal · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA8275 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Cartilages 8 to 10 do not reach the sternum but join the cartilage above.
Structures next to the seventh costal cartilage
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Sixth costal cartilage · skeletal
- Hepatovenous segment III · digestive
- Middle hepatic vein · cardiovascular
- Hepatovenous segment II · digestive
- Fifth costal cartilage · skeletal
- Hepatovenous segment IV · digestive
- Portal vein · cardiovascular
- Hepatic vein · cardiovascular
- Anterior papillary muscle of ventricle · cardiovascular
- Xiphoid process · skeletal
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Seventh costal cartilage (FMA8275). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §7.1 Divisions of the Skeletal System. Rice University, 2022.
- 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.
Related anatomy
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.