On some unresolved issues of endoscopic anatomy of the left lung’s lower lobe

Abstract

Background. This work is devoted to a connection of a variant of a supernumerary additional bronchus of the left lung’s lower lobe with a certain amount of subsegmental bronchi of the left segment six. Materials and methods. During the two-year period, we analyzed the results of 86 primary bronchoscopies (100.00%) in patients with additional bronchi in the left lung’s lower lobe of the basal pyramid. We study the connection of a variant of a supernumerary additional bronchus of the left lung’s lower lobe with a certain amount of subsegmental bronchi of the left segment six. Results. One of the variants of a supernumerary additional bronchus of the left lung’s lower lobe was suspected to be a dystopia of the subsegmental bronchus B6a to the basal pyramid area. We introduce the notions “displaced additional bronchus of the basal pyramid” and “supernumerary additional bronchus of the basal pyramid”. Conclusions. This paper states several unresolved questions of endoscopic anatomy of the left lung’s lower lobe. However, these questions cannot be resolved with a usual bronchoscopy.

Keywords

• bronchial branching anomalies
• bronchial tubes of the basal pyramid
• displaced additional bronchus of the basal pyramid
• supernumerary additional bronchus of the basal pyramid