Central tendon
Centrum tendineum
Definition
The central tendon of the diaphragm is a thin but strong aponeurosis situated near the center of the vault formed by the diaphragm muscle, but somewhat closer to the front than to the back of the thorax, so that the posterior muscular fibers are the longer.
The central tendon is situated immediately below the pericardium, with which it is partially blended. It is shaped somewhat like a trefoil leaf, consisting of three divisions or leaflets separated from one another by slight indentations. The right leaflet is the largest, the middle, directed toward the xiphoid process, the next in size, and the left the smallest.
The central tendon is composed of several planes of fibers, which intersect one another at various angles and unite into straight or curved bundles, an arrangement which gives it additional strength.
