MEDICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. 1  Back pain - returning to work. 2  Back pain and sports. 3  Compression fractures of the back. 4  Lifting and bending the right way. 5  Lumbosacral spine x-ray. 6  Returning to sports after a back injury. 7  Spinal fusion. 8  Spinal fusion - slideshow. 9  Vertebroplasty - slideshow.
The mucociliary escalator is one of the major defense mechanisms, which protect the lung, and if the mucociliary escalator fails, it increases the risk that the normal and potentially pathogenic, inhabitants of the nose, throat and the back of the mouth, will descend into the lung, resulting in a potentially life-threatening pneumonia ( Anatomy and Physiology, 2013, p. 139).
The esophagus or oesophagus, commonly known as the food pipe or gullet, is an organ in vertebrates through which food passes, aided by peristaltic contractions, from the pharynx to the stomach. The esophagus is a fibromuscular tube, about 25 centimetres long in adults, which travels behind the trachea and heart, passes through the diaphragm and empties into the uppermost region of the stomach. During swallowing, the epiglottis tilts backwards to prevent food from going down the larynx and lungs.