Salivary bypass tubes have been used with great success in preventing neck wound contamination from saliva and decreasing the risk of pharyngoesophageal stenosis. However, complications from esophageal tubes and risk factors for these complications should not be overlooked. Complications can be fatal, as demonstrated in this case of esophageal-subclavian artery fistulization. Retroesophageal su...

Introduction: Arteria lusoria is an aberrant right subclavian artery. In symptomatic cases, patients report dysphagia and only in few cases dyspnea, due to external compression of the trachea and esophagus. Symptoms occur in advanced age and diagnosis is made with chest HRCT, when other causes of dysphagia have been excluded.    Case Report: An 83-year-old woman presented with dyspnea and m...

pulmonary infections, cardiac angiography found "absence" of the left pulmonary artery, but thoracic aortography demonstrated that a rudimentary patent ductus filled a distal patent pulmonary artery. There was a coexistent vascular ring with a retroesophageal right subclavian artery. At surgical exploration it was possible to mobilize the distal left puLmonary artery and perform a direct anasto...

Though the radial artery is an ideal site of access for coronary percutaneous interventions (PCI), anatomical variations may render this procedure more challenging. An aberrant right subclavian artery (arteria lusoria) arising from the descending aorta is an uncommon congenital variant that occurs in about 0.2–1.7% of the population. In such cases, the angulated retroesophageal course of this a...

A 50-year-old patient with a history of hypopharyngeal cancer, laryngectomy, adjuvant chemoradiotherapy and incompetent tracheoesophageal fistula was admitted for elective pharingostomal surgery. During the surgery, he presented esophageal bleeding hemodynamic instability. After stabilization, gastroscopy performed through stoma, showing arterial 4-5 cm distal to which controlled three hemostat...

This study reports our early experience with thoracoscopic division of vascular rings. Three patients were reviewed; their ages at surgery were 25 months, 4 years, and 57 years. All patients were suffering from complete vascular rings involving combinations of the right aortic arch, left ligamentum arteriosum, Kommerell's diverticulum, and retroesophageal left subclavian artery. The median surg...

BACKGROUND The most reliable data about arterial variations, which are very important in surgery and radiology, can be obtained from a large series of patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS We examined angiographic and multislice computerised tomography (MSCT) images in a group of 1,265 patients and in 1 dissected specimen. RESULTS While in 946 (74.72%) of the patients a normal vascular pattern (t...