Left pulmonary artery sling in the adult: case report and review of the literature.

The aberrant left pulmonary artery is a serious anomaly in neonates; in the adult it is most often an incidental finding. One case is reported, incidentally discovered in the diagnostic workup of a patient with a vertebral lytic lesion. This vascular anomaly, mimicking a mediastinal adenopathy on the chest roentgenogram, which also showed a peripheral lung malignancy, was better assessed by an esophagogram (indentation on the posterior tracheal wall as well as on the anterior esophageal wall) along with fluoroscopy which showed the lesion to be pulsating. Its thorough anatomic evaluation was allowed by computed tomography (CT), performed for the staging of the lung tumor. The latter proves the choice modality due to its capability to provide precise information on all the different structures existing in a given cross-section.