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Three cases of esophageal cancer with aberrant right subclavian artery treated by thoracoscopic esophagectomy

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Abstract

An aberrant right subclavian artery (ARSA) is an anatomical abnormality that occurs at a frequency of 0.4–2 %. It is important to be aware of this abnormality when performing radical esophagectomy for esophageal cancer because many patients with an ARSA have a right nonrecurrent inferior laryngeal nerve (NRILN) and right thoracic duct. We report three cases of esophageal cancer with ARSA treated by thoracoscopic esophagectomy. Case 1 was a 59-year-old woman with a relapse of a thoracic esophageal cancer after definitive chemoradiotherapy (CRT). Case 2 was a 76-year-old man with upper thoracic esophageal cancer who had received no treatment before the surgery. Case 3 was a 69-year-old man with upper thoracic esophageal cancer pretreated with neoadjuvant CRT. It was possible to predict an ARSA by computed tomography and the right thoracic ducts by magnetic resonance imaging before surgery in all three cases. Thoracoscopic esophagectomy with two-field lymph node dissection was performed, and the NRILN and the right thoracic duct were detected and preserved in all three cases. Because of ARSA, the operative field is limited around the left recurrent nerve, so a careful procedure is needed to avoid nerve palsy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Advanced Surgical Science and Technology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi, 980-8575, Japan

    Jin Teshima, Go Miyata, Takashi Kamei, Toru Nakano, Shigeo Abe, Kazunori Katsura, Yusuke Taniyama, Chiaki Sato, Tomohiko Nakagawa & Souichi Ito

  2. Division of Surgical Oncology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan

    Noriaki Ouchi

Authors
  1. Jin Teshima
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  2. Go Miyata
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  3. Takashi Kamei
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  4. Toru Nakano
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  5. Shigeo Abe
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  6. Kazunori Katsura
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  7. Yusuke Taniyama
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  8. Chiaki Sato
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  9. Tomohiko Nakagawa
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  10. Souichi Ito
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  11. Noriaki Ouchi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jin Teshima.

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Teshima, J., Miyata, G., Kamei, T. et al. Three cases of esophageal cancer with aberrant right subclavian artery treated by thoracoscopic esophagectomy. Esophagus 10, 165–169 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10388-013-0363-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10388-013-0363-y

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