The topographic relationships between thoracic duct and bronchial arteries and surgical relevance

Abstract

embolization of this artery for the treatment of recurrent hemoptysis, bronchial arteriovenous malformations in addition to surgical treatment of esophageal carcinoma [2]. In the second case, we found a thoracic duct passing ventral and medial to the right bronchial artery arising from the third posterior intercostal artery associated with ectopic common bronchial artery trunk [3, 4]. In the latter papers, diagrams showing such relationships between the thoracic duct and right bronchial artery in addition to the left recurrent laryngeal nerve were shown. However, in their paper, Kajiyama et al. did not show the thoracic duct in figure one as they mentioned in the figure legend; actually, it is difficult to see it and to detect any topographical relationships based on this figure [1]. Finally, we would like to thank Kajiyama et al. for their interesting work, which has important surgical relevance to esophageal cancer and the prevention of chyloyhorax. Their paper [1] supports our previously reported cadaveric (kentai) research and confirms the fact that anatomy is a keystone of surgery and proper knowledge of the variant anatomy is essential for surgeons.