Vagus nerve
Latin: Nervus vagus sinistra
Paired structure: one on the left and one on the right side of the body.
View the vagus nerve in 3DRoots
Cranial nerve X — nuclei ambiguus, solitarius, dorsal motor.
Course
Leaves the jugular foramen in the carotid sheath behind the artery and vein, descends the neck, enters the thorax, gives off the left recurrent laryngeal nerve, which hooks under the aortic arch behind the ligamentum arteriosum (a sixth-arch remnant), then continues behind the lung root onto the oesophagus, and follows it through the diaphragm to the stomach's coeliac territories.
Motor supply
Palatal and pharyngeal muscles (pharyngeal branch) and laryngeal muscles (recurrent and superior laryngeal nerves); parasympathetic supply to heart (slowing it), lungs (bronchoconstriction) and gut to the transverse colon's midgut border (peristalsis and secretion).
Sensory supply
Larynx below the cords, thoracic and abdominal viscera, the aortic bodies and arch baroreceptors (the carotid body and sinus are mainly supplied by CN IX).
Clinical relevance
Hoarseness from a left recurrent laryngeal palsy — the nerve's long loop under the aortic arch — is a red flag for thoracic disease; vagal stimulation treats drug-resistant epilepsy and depression, and vagotomy's history parallels ulcer surgery's rise and fall.
Educational anatomy reference, not medical advice. About this content.