title: Esophagectomy for thoracic esophageal cancer with a double aortic arch: report of a case.
abstract: We report the case of a 50-year-old man with a double aortic arch who underwent esophagectomy for cancer in the middle thoracic esophagus at clinical Stage IIA (T3N0M0), based on the TNM classification (UICC 2002). The patient underwent esophagectomy with three-field lymphadenectomy following neoadjuvant chemotherapy. In such a case, it is important to recognize the anatomy in the upper mediastinum, especially the relationship between the right and left aortic arch, and the recurrent laryngeal nerves using computed tomography (CT) and three-dimensional CT. At first, we performed a cervical lymphadenectomy in order to isolate the bilateral recurrent laryngeal nerves, then mediastinal lymphadenectomy through a right thoracotomy. However, we could not confirm the bilateral recurrent laryngeal nerves during mediastinal lymphadenectomy, and were thus unable to resect them. The postoperative course was uneventful. The patient died of multiple liver metastasis 4 years after the surgery, with no evidence of recurrence in any lymph node.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Kurume University School of Medicine, 67 Asahi-machi, Kurume, Fukuoka, 830-0011, Japan.
authors.forename: Satoru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Matono
authors.forename: Hiromasa
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fujita
authors.forename: Toshiaki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Yuichi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nagano
authors.forename: Kohei
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nishimura
authors.forename: Kazutaka
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Murata
authors.forename: Susumu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sueyoshi
authors.forename: Kazuo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shirouzu
mesh_terms: D001013:Aorta, Thoracic / Q000002:abnormalities*; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D016629:Esophagectomy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged