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Mnemonic

Pleural Recesses

A memory aid for the pleural recesses and their clinical importance.

Anatomy Respiratory Thorax Pleural Disease
Expansion

Costodiaphragmatic and costomediastinal recesses

Expansion

  • Costodiaphragmatic recess - between the costal and diaphragmatic pleura, the deeper and more important of the two
  • Costomediastinal recess - between the costal and mediastinal pleura, most marked on the left where the cardiac notch lies

These are the spaces the lung does not fill in quiet breathing; it expands into them on deep inspiration. Because the costodiaphragmatic recess is the lowest point of the cavity, it is both the first place a pleural effusion appears and the target for diagnostic aspiration.