Tenth rib at a glance
- Also called
- Rib 10
- What it is
- The tenth rib. The last of the false ribs, with a single articular facet on its head.
- Location
- Part of the thoracic cage, curving from the tenth thoracic vertebra behind around the chest wall toward the front. A false rib.
- Function
- Protects the thoracic organs and, by moving at its vertebral joints, changes chest volume during breathing.
- Body system
- Skeletal · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA8472 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Its head articulates with T10 only, and its costal cartilage joins that of rib 9.
- The lowest point of the costal margin is usually at the tenth costal cartilage; the subcostal plane through it lies at about L3.
Structures next to the tenth rib
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Adrenal gland · endocrine
- Ninth rib · skeletal
- Eleventh rib · skeletal
- Spleen · lymphatic
- Inferior suprarenal artery · cardiovascular
- Suprarenal vein · cardiovascular
- Middle suprarenal artery · cardiovascular
- Hepatovenous segment VII · digestive
- Hepatovenous segment VI · digestive
- Twelfth rib · skeletal
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Tenth rib (FMA8472). 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.