Question:easy

An inhaled foreign body more commonly lodges in the right main bronchus than the left. Which set of features of the right main bronchus BEST explains this tendency?

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Which bronchus most nearly continues the straight line of the trachea?
Updated On: Jun 25, 2026
  • It is wider, shorter and more vertical (in line with the trachea), and the right lung has three lobes
  • It is narrower, longer and more horizontal, and the right lung has two lobes
  • It is wider but more horizontal, and the right lung has two lobes
  • It is narrower and more vertical, and the right lung has three lobes
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The Correct Option is A

Solution and Explanation

Foreign-body aspiration favours the right side, and the reason lies entirely in comparative bronchial anatomy.

The right main bronchus is the $\textbf{wider}$, $\textbf{shorter}$ and more $\textbf{vertical}$ of the two; it descends almost as a straight continuation of the trachea. Gravity and the airflow path therefore deliver inhaled objects preferentially down this near-vertical pipe. The left main bronchus is narrower, longer and more horizontal because it must arch over the heart and aortic arch, so it catches debris less often.

On the parenchymal side, the right lung is divided by oblique and horizontal fissures into $\textbf{three lobes}$ (superior, middle, inferior), while the left has only two lobes with the lingula representing the middle-lobe equivalent. In an upright, conscious patient an aspirated object typically ends up in the posterobasal segments of the right lower lobe.

Putting the bronchial features together:
\[\boxed{\text{Wider} + \text{shorter} + \text{more vertical bronchus};\ \text{right lung} = 3\ \text{lobes}}\]
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