Mediastinoscopic view of the bronchial arteries in a series of surgical cases evaluated with three-dimensional computed tomography

Background We have routinely performed three-dimensional computed tomography (3-D CT) prior to video-assisted transmediastinal esophagectomy to evaluate the small arteries in the mediastinal operative field. This evaluation would be helpful in performing mediastinoscopic esophagectomy. Methods Thirty-one patients who underwent transmediastinal esophagectomy with preoperative evaluations by 3-D CT were the study subject. The bronchial arteries depicted by the 3-D CT were classified by their origin and laterality. In 18 of the 31 cases, the surgical video was available and the identification rate in the video was reviewed for each of the categorized bronchial arteries. Results The detection rates of each classified artery were as follows (abbreviations, detection rate); the intercostal-bronchial trunk (IBT, 22/31), the direct left bronchial artery (LBA, 17/31), the common trunk of bronchial arteries (CTB, 7/31), the direct right bronchial artery (RBA, 2/31), and the ectopic arteries (16/31). The ectopic arteries arose from the aortic arch (11 cases), the right subclavian artery (6 cases) or the left subclavian artery (1 case). The identification rates of IBT, LBA, CTB, RBA and any of the ectopic arteries in the video review were 12/13, 4/8, 3/4, 1/1 and 2/10, respectively. Conclusions Preoperative 3-D CT was a highly sensitive evaluation for the bronchial arteries encountered during transmediastinal esophagectomy. Orthotopic arteries except for LBA were frequently identified at the predicted sites. Although RBA and CTB were present infrequently, they often flowed into regional nodes at the bilateral bronchi or the tracheal bifurcation and, therefore, should be preoperatively evaluated.