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Vertebral arteria lusoria: a life-threatening condition for oesophageal surgery

  • Anatomic Variations
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Abstract

A rare anatomic variant of the right vertebral artery is reported as an incidental finding in a 78-year-old female patient. The vessel originated from the aortic arch distal to the origin of the left subclavian artery and presented an unusual retroesophageal course, thus was named “vertebral arteria lusoria”. As multi-detector row computed tomography examination is now widely used, this anatomical variant should be considered in any patient undergoing esophageal surgery. Misdiagnosis of such an aberrant vertebral artery may cause life-threatening issues.

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Abbreviations

MDCT:

Multi-detector row computed tomography

VAL:

Vertebral arteria lusoria

RSCA:

Right subclavian artery

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre d’imagerie Médicale, 47, Boulevard du Pont Rouge, 15000, Aurillac, France

    Alexis Lacout

  2. Service de Radiologie, Hôpital Tenon, AP-HP, Paris, France

    Antoine Khalil

  3. Oncology Breast Surgery Department, Antoine Lacassagne Cancer Research Center, 33 Avenue Valombrose, 06189, Nice Cedex 1, France

    Andrea Figl

  4. Service de Chirurgie Viscérale, Centre Médico Chirurgical, 83, Avenue Charles de Gaulle, 15000, Aurillac, France

    Richard Liloku

  5. Head and Neck and Interventional Radiology Department, Antoine Lacassagne Cancer Research Institute, 33, Avenue Valombrose, 06189, Nice cedex 1, France

    Pierre-Yves Marcy

Authors
  1. Alexis Lacout
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  2. Antoine Khalil
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  3. Andrea Figl
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  4. Richard Liloku
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  5. Pierre-Yves Marcy
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Correspondence to Alexis Lacout.

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Lacout, A., Khalil, A., Figl, A. et al. Vertebral arteria lusoria: a life-threatening condition for oesophageal surgery. Surg Radiol Anat 34, 381–383 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-011-0867-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-011-0867-x

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