Thoracic surgery
Anatomic variations of pulmonary vessels relevant with regard to lung tissue resections – literature review and personal experiences

The less invasive methods of lung tissue resection are becoming a clinical standard. This obligates surgeons to be well trained in the field of anatomy. Thus, we decided to create a comprehensive description of normal anatomy as well as anatomical variations of pulmonary vessels for the purpose of thoracic surgery procedures. We also retrospectively analyzed a database of 642 patients with lung cancer who underwent lung tissue resection at the Department of Surgery of the National Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases Research Institute in Warsaw (Poland), searching for descriptions of the anatomic variations observed during the surgical procedures. The results were subsequently compared to existing literature data. Variations of the arterial system were found in 8.72% of cases. Variations of the venous system were described in 3.12%. The frequency of variations in our database is lower than previously suspected based on the literature data. Nevertheless, several rare and potentially dangerous variations were described.