the.com/pleura
the slippery double-layered cling wrap keeping your lungs from chafing against your own ribs
means The thin double-layered membrane lining the lungs and the inside of the chest cavity, with a slick film of fluid between the layers so they glide rather than rub.
from Straight from the Greek pleura, meaning 'side' or 'rib' — the part of you that takes the hit. Greek anatomists borrowed the everyday word for your flank to name the lining clinging to those ribs, and it slid intact into Latin and on into medical English. Its inflamed cousin, pleurisy, is the same root wearing a scowl.
- surface area
- larger than the skin covering your whole body
- vacuum trick
- negative pressure inside keeps lungs inflated
- two layers
- visceral hugs lung, parietal lines the chest
- slick fluid
- only teaspoons lubricate every single breath
- pain alarm
- inflamed pleura makes breathing a stabbing affair
mesothelioma — cancer of the pleura, causing ~3,000 deaths annually in the us, primarily from asbestos exposure
pneumothorax — collapsed lung from pleural rupture, common emergency affecting 24 per 100,000 people yearly
pleural effusion — fluid accumulation around lungs, present in ~1 million hospitalizations annually in the us