Complete Absence of Oblique Fissure in the Left Lung: A case report on anatomic variation

Abstract

Classically, development of respiratory tissues in humans displays segmentation which produces a left lung with two lobes, separated by the oblique fissure. The bilobar left lung is smaller than the right lung as a standard, allowing space for the heart. However, absence of oblique fissure in the left lung, as is discussed in this abstract, is anomalous. 24 pairs of lungs obtained from routine dissection of adult formalin fixed cadavers used for first‐year regional anatomy course at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine were used in this study. There was a total of 13 female and 11 male and cadavers with an average age of 80 years. The lungs were observed for presence or absence of fissures and lobes. We report a case of absent oblique fissure in the left lung in a 56‐year‐old female cadaver. While hypoplasia of the left lung is apparent, her right lung displayed standard trilobar development. Although no other cadavers within this cohort displayed similar lobar hypoplasia of the lung, our team did find that the left lung from a 74‐year‐old female cadaver was notably small. Developmental lung anomalies in adults are rare, and our findings contribute to prevalence reports of left lung hypoplasia. Recognition of variation in bronchopulmonary fissures may be useful in clinical settings, i.e., in localization of pulmonary lesions, surgical planning, planning for other invasive respiratory procedures, and interpretation of radiographs or computed tomography scans.