Variations in the branching patterns of pulmonary artery during thoracoscopic pulmonary resection.

PURPOSE The knowledge of variations in the branching patterns of pulmonary artery may have important clinical implications in the field of thoracic surgery. METHODS At the Department of Thoracic Surgery of Monaldi Hospital in Naples, between January 2017 and December 2019, 569 anatomic pulmonary resections via video-assisted thoracic surgery, including lobectomy and segmentectomy, were performed. RESULTS Among the 569 thoracoscopic pulmonary resections, 24 variations in the branching patterns of pulmonary artery were identified and documented. Anatomic variations on the left were more frequent than on the right. CONCLUSION This paper, providing a summary of vascular anomalies identified during major lung resections, could help surgeons avoid intraoperative complications, especially during minimally invasive procedures where the visual field is more restricted than open surgery.