How Does Blood Flow through The Heart........

How does blood flow through the heart?

Content provided by Cleveland Clinic

The right and left sides of the heart work together.
Right Side

Left Side
Blood enters the heart through two large veins, the inferior and superior vena cava, emptying oxygen-poor blood from the body into the right atrium. Atrial Filling The pulmonary vein empties oxygen-rich blood, from the lungs into the left atrium.

Atrial contraction: blood flows from your right atrium into your right ventricle through the open tricuspid valve.

When the ventricles are full, the tricuspid valve shuts. This prevents blood from flowing backward into the atria while the ventricles contract (squeeze).
Atrial Contraction

Atrial contraction: blood flows from your left atrium into your left ventricle through the open mitral valve.

When the ventricles are full, the mitral valve shuts. This prevents blood from flowing backward into the atria while the ventricles contract (squeeze).
Ventricular contraction: blood leaves the heart through the pulmonic valve, into the pulmonary artery and to the lungs.

Ventricular contraction: blood leaves the heart through the aortic valve, into the aorta and to the body.
This pattern is repeated over and over, causing blood to flow continuously to the heart, lungs and body.

How does blood flow through your lungs?
Oxygen and carbon dioxide travels to and from tiny air sacs in the lungs, through the walls of the capillaries, into the blood.