An adult case of pulmonary artery sling accompanied by tracheobronchomalacia

Abstract

Pulmonary artery (PA) sling is a congenital disease in which the left PA abnormally arises from the right PA and is usually diagnosed during the infantile period. We present an adult case of PA sling accompanied by tracheobronchomalacia found in a 49-year-old woman with a history of recurrent pneumonia. Computed tomography of the chest showed that the left lung was nourished by two aberrant PAs. Bronchoscopy demonstrated achondroplasia of the trachea and the right bronchus, which we speculate to have resulted in their stenosis. The recurrent pneumonia was attributable to these tracheobronchial structural abnormalities; we therefore stress the importance of focusing on the anatomic abnormalities in such cases.