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In this Article

• Introduction to how the heart works
• How does blood travel through the heart?
• Where is your heart and what does it look like?
• How does blood flow through the heart?
• How does blood flow through your lungs?
• What are the coronary arteries?
• How does the heart beat?
• Heart: How the Heart Works Index

The right and left sides of the heart work together. The pattern described below is repeated over and over, causing blood to flow continuously to the heart, lungs, and body.

Right Side of the Heart

• 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 of the heart.
• As the atrium contracts, blood flows from your right atrium into your right ventricle through the open tricuspid valve.
• When the ventricle is full, the tricuspid valve shuts. This prevents blood from flowing backward into the atria while the ventricle contracts.
• As the ventricle contracts, blood leaves the heart through the pulmonic valve, into the pulmonary artery and to the lungs where it is oxygenated.

Left Side of the Heart

• The pulmonary vein empties oxygen-rich blood from the lungs into the left atrium of the heart.
• As the atrium contracts, blood flows from your left atrium into your left ventricle through the open mitral valve.
• When the ventricle is full, the mitral valve shuts. This prevents blood from flowing backward into the atrium while the ventricle contracts.
• As the ventricle contracts, blood leaves the heart through the aortic valve, into the aorta and to the body.

Once blood travels through the pulmonic valve, it enters your lungs. This is called the pulmonary circulation. From your pulmonic valve, blood travels to the pulmonary artery to tiny capillary vessels in the lungs.

Here, oxygen travels from the tiny air sacs in the lungs, through the walls of the capillaries, into the blood. At the same time, carbon dioxide, a waste product of metabolism, passes from the blood into the air sacs. Carbon dioxide leaves the body when you exhale. Once the blood is purified and oxygenated, it travels back to the left atrium through the pulmonary veins.

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