Talk:Pleural cavity

Potential space
It is obviously contradictory to say that the pleural cavity is a 'potential space' and also that it contains fluid. It is a potential air space, but a real fluid-filled space.

Pleurisy

 * An older term, pleurisy, is sometimes encountered: it indicated an inflammation of the pleura, especially one causing painful respiration, and could be provoked by a variety of infectious and non-infectious causes.

If this is an older term, what's the current term? I'll try to find out myself and come back to this. Jenks 10:17, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)


 * Pleuritis. This is rarely primary but more often associated with pneumonias. Pleuritic chest pain is the breathing-related pain that signifies involvement of the pleura; it is seen in infections and pulmonary embolism. JFW | T@lk  11:23, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Intrapleural
I redirected Intrapleural here. The definition I got from searching was that it means "within the pleural cavity". I don't know if it should be mentioned the article or not. -- Kjkolb 09:23, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

1 lung, 1 pleura
I got the sense this article is saying that each lung has two pleurae, a visceral pleura and a parietal pleura. I don't think this is the case. Each lung has 1 continuous pleura folded upon itself to create a visceral part/layer against the lung known as the visceral pleura, and a parietal part/layer against the thoracic cavity wall known as the parietal pleura. I would understand this from Dorland's dictionary definition and Gray's Anatomy online description. As well, conveying there is two pleurae for each lung belies the fact that the pleura of each lung is continuous, which is one of the most difficult things about it to understand (but also the crux of understanding the pleural cavity as a potential space), I think. Pleurae should only be used to reference the right and left pleura together, as they are completely separate. I'm putting this here for discussion, as well before editing the article I'd have to find a way to clearly convey the continuous nature of each pleura (Gray says "The two layers are continuous with one another around and below the root of the lung").Jauntymcd 23:51, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Review
"Pathophysiology of the pleura" - 2008 10.1159/000113629. Good. JFW &#124; T@lk  10:43, 7 August 2011 (UTC)

"Function" The third sentence under the Functions heading does not make sense — please correct. [User: xpaladinx] — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.88.88.202 (talk) 01:15, 8 February 2012 (UTC)

Proposed merge with Pulmonary pleurae
I propose merging these two articles because they duplicate a lot of content and because a merge will benefit readers. It makes sense to have the cavity and its walls in the same article, rather than two unnecessarily divided articles. This way, readers can understand in greater depth the relationship between this (potential) cavity and its walls. Tom (LT) (talk) 08:26, 7 September 2015 (UTC)
 * I think a better merge would be of the cavity to the pleurae. The pleural cavity page refers a lot to the pleural fluid which is secreted by the pleurae not the cavity. Also similar to pericardium and pericardial cavity. --Iztwoz (talk) 09:06, 7 September 2015 (UTC)
 * Agree that seems more logical, especially when we're dealing with potential cavities. We'd have three subsections - pleural walls, pleural cavity, and pleural fluid --Tom (LT) (talk) 10:07, 7 September 2015 (UTC)


 * I disagree, as a merge would compromise the integrity of the subheading(structure) under Pulmonary pleurae Mrkidoo (talk) 17:24, 5 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Closing, given lack of consensus over more than 2 year and discussion now stale. Klbrain (talk) 23:54, 18 November 2017 (UTC)

Badly explained
The assistance of the intrapleural space in exhalation and inhalation largely comes from its negative pressure in opposition to the inward elastic force of the lungs. As the article now reads in the function section, it is very confusing where this "negative pressure" is and why it is useful. The mechanism through which inhalation occurs is through the decrease in the negative opposing pressure of the intrapleural space to the elasticity of the lung; the contraction of the external intercostal muscles is only indirectly related and is not relevant nor related to the functioning of the intrapleural space.