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Relational topographical anatomy between right bronchial artery and thoracic duct

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Abstract

Thoracic duct injury leads to “chylothorax”. We found a close relationship of topographical anatomy between right bronchial artery and thoracic duct from esophageal cancer operations. We retrospectively analyzed topographical anatomy of right bronchial artery and location of thoracic duct in 124 cases operated in 2012. Of 124 cases, we recognized 8 cases of anomalous right bronchial artery. In these cases, the right bronchial artery originated directly from descending aorta without connections with third intercostal artery. When the right bronchial artery has a connection with third intercostal artery, the thoracic duct was located within the loop of the right bronchial artery. However, in these 8 anomalous cases, thoracic duct was located dorsally outside the loop of the right bronchial artery without exceptions. We have to be very careful in exploring the thoracic duct when we notice the anomalous right bronchial artery during esophageal cancer operation.

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Ethical Statement

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1964 and later revision. Informed consent or substitute for it was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

Conflict of interest

All authors, Y. Kajiyama, Y. Iwanuma, N. Tomita, T. Amano, F. Isayama, M. Saita, A. Ozaki, M. Shibamoto, H. Kitano and T. Uchida, declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Esophageal and Gastroenterological Surgery, Juntendo University School of Medicine, 2-1-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8421, Japan

    Yoshiaki Kajiyama, Yoshimi Iwanuma, Natsumi Tomita, Takayuki Amano, Fuyumi Isayama, Masayuki Saita, Asako Ozaki, Misako Shibamoto, Hiromi Kitano & Takayuki Uchida

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  1. Yoshiaki Kajiyama
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  2. Yoshimi Iwanuma
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  3. Natsumi Tomita
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  4. Takayuki Amano
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  5. Fuyumi Isayama
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  6. Masayuki Saita
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  7. Asako Ozaki
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  8. Misako Shibamoto
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  9. Hiromi Kitano
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  10. Takayuki Uchida
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Correspondence to Yoshiaki Kajiyama.

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Kajiyama, Y., Iwanuma, Y., Tomita, N. et al. Relational topographical anatomy between right bronchial artery and thoracic duct. Esophagus 12, 398–400 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10388-014-0450-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10388-014-0450-8

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