A case of a surgically resected lung tumor in a patient with right aortic arch

Abstract

A 63-year-old male was referred to our hospital for further examination of a coin lesion of his left lung on a chest x-ray film. Radiologic examination revealed that the tumor was located in segment 6 and he had a right aortic arch with aberrant left subclavian artery. Although both the needle biopsy and TBLB could not indicate malignancy in the specimen, he underwent thoracotomy because of a suspicion of lung cancer from the radiological findings.
As histological examination of frozen section of the resected specimen showed dysplasia, a left lower lobectomy with mediastinal lymph node dissection was carried out. The pulmonary artery and pulmonary vein ran in the normal anatomical position. The ligamentum arteriorsus was found between the left subclavian artery and the pulmonary artery. The left vagal nerve ran lateral to this ligamentum and branched into the recurrent nerve crossing under the ligamentum.