Letter: g

The two chains of sympathetic ganglia extending along the ventrolateral surfaces of the vertebral column from the upper cervical region to the coccyx. Each trunk consists of a series of sympathetic ganglia connected by a nerve cord. These nerve cords are composed largely of nerve fibers associated with the cell bodies within the ganglia. The right and left sympathetic trunks join, at the ventral surface of the coccyx, to form a single ganglion known as the ganglion impar, or ganglion of Walther. SEE sympathetic trunks.

[pl. ganglia]. A mass or knot consisting largely of nerve cell bodies and lying outside the central nervous system: e.g., the dorsal root ganglia of the spinal and cranial nerves, and the autonomic ganglia of the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems.