Compression of the Trachea by an Anomalous Innominate Artery

IN PREVIOUS communications 1 we described surgical technics for the alleviation of esophageal or tracheal obstructions which were caused by extrinsic pressure from a double aortic arch or from an anomalous right subclavian artery. In a brief way, we should like to summarize our experience with the successful surgical treatment of a similar condition in which the trachea was compressed by an innominate artery which lay in an unusual position. For many decades anatomists and pathologists have been recording abnormalities of the aortic arch and the great vessels which arise from it. On several occasions clinicians 2 described the symptoms which can arise from such vascular malformations, making particular reference to the evidence of esophageal or tracheal obstruction. More recently the roentgenologist 3 has pointed the way for a rapid and rather accurate recognition of these abnormalities by roentgenographic visualization of the esophagus and trachea with contrast mediums. Now it