title: Thoracoscopic right posterior segmentectomy of a patient with anomalous bronchus and pulmonary vein.
abstract: A 39-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital for a pure ground-glass opacity that had been detected in the right lung during a regular examination. A computed tomography scan showed a pure ground-glass opacity beneath the pleura of the right upper lobe of the lung that had enlarged over time. As a consequence, a lung adenocarcinoma was suspected. Meanwhile, three-dimensional computed tomography scans revealed a tracheal bronchus originating directly from the lateral wall of the trachea. The patient consequently underwent posterior segmental resection and mediastinal lymph node sampling by video-assisted thoracic surgery. During surgery, in addition to the tracheal bronchus, a variable central vein was found entering the left atrium dorsal to the right pulmonary artery trunk. We submit that, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of its kind ever reported.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Xin-feng
authors.initials: XF
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China. Electronic address: clbright0909@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Wei-bing
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Quan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery*; D000077192:Adenocarcinoma of Lung; D000328:Adult; D001980:Bronchi / Q000002:abnormalities* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery*; D011013:Pneumonectomy / Q000379:methods*; D011667:Pulmonary Veins / Q000002:abnormalities* / Q000601:surgery; D020775:Thoracic Surgery, Video-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed