Macroscopic anatomy of the bronchial arteries.

Exact and detailed findings concerning a macroscopic anatomy of the bronchial arteries have not been presented. Moreover, positional relations of this artery to the adjacent organs had mostly been neglected, which offered an important key to identify the aberrant vessel in some cardiac malformations. The authors dissected the bronchial arteries from their origin to the pulmonary hilus in 40 Jpanese adult cadavers. Against the descriptions of textbooks of anatomy, 2 right and 2 left arteries in a body were most commonly observed. Therefore, 4 arteries could be distinguished, right superior, right inferior, left superior and left inferior, which passed along cranial and caudal borders of the corresponding bronchus respectively. Origins of these arteries were 1) right aortic intercostal artery, 2) right subclavian artery, 3) left subclavian artery, 4) aortic arch proximal to the left recurrent laryngeal nerve and 5) descending aorta distal to the above-mentioned nerve. As a rule, each of the 4 arteries above had a definite origin and course, as shown in Fig. 7. Postional relations of these arteries to the trachea, esophagus, thoracic duct, azygos vein and the left recurrent laryngeal nerve were also described.