Naming the bronchopulmonary segments and the development of pulmonary surgery.

An international agreement on bronchial nomenclature and anatomy was not reached until well after operations for bronchopulmonary segmental disease were well developed. R. C. Brock, in 1950, was the reporter of the efforts of The Thoracic Society of Great Britain to bring some order to this confused state. This Society delayed its action until an ad hoc committee made up of members from other countries and specialties met at the International Congress of Otorhinolaryngology in 1949. The anatomy and nomenclature of the bronchopulmonary segments was agreed upon. The Thoracic Society then accepted the report of the ad hoc committee. The system was followed closely by the first Nomina Anatomica in 1955. This report did not open new surgical vistas but was the marker indicating that pulmonary surgery was now mature.