Pulmonary Sequestration

The developmental relationship between tracheal bronchus, bronchogenic cyst and pulmonary sequestration can be traced by analysis of these respective entities. It is extremely unlikely that the sequestrated tissue resulted from fractionation of this tissue from the main lung mass by an aberrant systemic artery. The constancy of an anomalous pulmonary artery originating from the aorta in pulmonary sequestration results from persistence of embryonic communications between the systemic and pulmonary arterial systems. The presence of such anomalous arteries introduces the hazards of operative hemorrhage. The role of preoperative selective aortography in identifying the aberrant vessel is considered and its use described in two patients in a hospital series of four patients with pulmonary sequestration.