 This video will cover the following objective. Describe the location of the heart and the body. The heart is found within the thoracic cavity in the medial region of the thoracic cavity known as the medial stynum. You can see the white dashed line outlines the medial stynum in the illustration here. And the heart is found in the inferior part of the medial stynum where it's attached to the great blood vessels. You can see here the superior vena cava and the arch of the aorta and pulmonary trunk are large blood vessels that are attached at the base of the heart. So the superior region of the heart is called the base of the heart. And then the pointed inferior region of the heart is the apex of the heart. But the apex of the heart is found on the left side not straight inferior along the midline because the heart is oriented obliquely within the medial stynum pointed to the left with two-thirds of the heart found left of the midline and one-third to the right side of the midline. The heart is located at the level of the second rib. So the base of the heart is at the level of the second rib and fifth thoracic vertebrae and the apex of the heart is found at the fifth intercostal space in between the fifth and sixth rib at the level of the ninth thoracic vertebrae. The inferior chambers of the heart are called ventricles. There's two ventricles, a right and left ventricle, and the the right ventricle is contacting the diaphragm along the inferior surface. Well, there are many reasons that it's important to understand the location of the heart. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation, commonly abbreviated CPR, is one important reason to understand the location of the heart. This is a life-saving procedure used during cardiac arrest when the heart stops beating. You can give chest compressions in order to keep blood moving throughout the body, but you have to locate the appropriate location to place your hands by feeling for the inferior tip of the sternum, the xiphoid process, and then placing your hands just superior to the xiphoid process on the body of the sternum. If you compress onto the xiphoid process, there is the danger that you could break the xiphoid process off and lacerate the liver causing serious internal bleeding problems. But while you're giving compressions on the body of the sternum and an adult you want to compress down around two inches and then allow the chest to expand and then compress again with a steady rhythm of around 100 beats per minute. Some people sing along to the song by the Bee Gees staying alive in order to help them keep that rhythm of around 100 beats per minute. The song goes Bop, bop, bop, bop, stay in alive, stay in alive. So you keep compressions with every one of those beats in order to keep 100 beats per minute or around there in order to keep blood flowing through the body to keep the person's tissues alive until their heart can start again.