Lung hilum & root

Looks like

The area on the inner face of each lung where the lung root enters: main bronchus, pulmonary artery and veins, bronchial vessels, nerves and lymph nodes, wrapped in a sleeve of pleura.

What it does

Anchors the lung and carries everything in and out of it.

Keeping it well

Enlarged nodes here on a chest X-ray point to sarcoidosis, TB, lymphoma or spread of lung cancer. Central lung cancers start close to it.

Related conditions

• Acute respiratory distress syndrome
• Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency
• Altitude sickness
• Asbestosis and asbestos-related disease
• Aspergillosis
• Asthma
• Breathing pattern disorder
• Bronchiectasis
• Bronchiolitis & RSV
• COPD
• COVID-19
• Cystic fibrosis
• Drowning
• Echinococcosis (hydatid disease)
• Endemic fungal infections (histoplasmosis, coccidioidomycosis)
• Hantavirus infection
• Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
• Influenza
• Legionnaires' disease
• Leptospirosis (Weil's disease)
• Long COVID (post-viral syndrome)
• Lung abscess
• Lung cancer
• Measles
• Mesothelioma
• Molar pregnancy and gestational trophoblastic disease
• Neonatal sepsis
• Neuroendocrine tumours (carcinoid)
• Pleural effusion
• Pleurisy
• Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP)
• Pneumonia
• Pneumothorax
• Pulmonary embolism
• Pulmonary hypertension
• Pulmonary oedema
• Respiratory distress syndrome of the newborn
• Sarcoidosis
• SIADH (inappropriate antidiuretic hormone)
• Silicosis and coal workers' pneumoconiosis
• Sudden infant death syndrome
• Systemic sclerosis (scleroderma)
• Tuberculosis
• Whooping cough