Lung morphology: a cadaver study in Indian population.

Abstract

Knowledge of anatomical variations of lung is required by clinicians for accurate interpretation on different imaging techniques. During routine dissection in the anatomy department, a single lung extending uniformly throughout the thoracic cavity was detected in a 35 year old male cadaver. Thereafter a cadaver study was undertaken to report the prevalence of variations involving number, lobes and fissures of lung in Indian population. The thoracic cavities of 29 properly embalmed cadavers containing lungs were dissected and morphological features like number, fissures and lobes were observed for the presence of anatomical variations. The aforementioned single lung cadaver had associated dextrocardia. One accessory lobe on the inferior aspect was observed in 27.2% of lungs studied, whereas supernumerary fissures which were most common in right lower lobe were detected in 35% of lung specimens. The transverse fissure on the right lung was absent in 7.1% and incomplete in 50% of lung specimens. In the right lung, the oblique fissure was absent in 7.1% and incomplete in 39.3% of specimens. The oblique fissure was absent in 10.7% and incomplete in 35.7% of left lungs. Comparative analysis of our work with previous data in the literature suggest that different studies performed on radiological images reported greater prevalence of incomplete or absent pulmonary fissures as compared to various cadaver studies. Our aforementioned findings regarding the variations seen in fissures and lobes of both lungs were different from previous studies. Variations of lung anatomy are important for both the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases involving all the domains of medicine.