Bronchial Obstruction Secondary to an Aberrant Pulmonary Artery

There have been many reports of cardiovascular abnormalities which obstruct the respiratory organs in infants.1,8According to Potts,6the commonest anomaly described in the medical literature is that of persistent double aortic arch, in which one segment passes anterior to the trachea, the other posterior to the esophagus. The surgical treatment of this defect is now accepted, Gross4having successfully resected a double aortic arch in 1945. A relatively rare abnormality, however, is an aberrant left pulmonary artery which compresses the right main bronchus. There are only nine of these cases in the literature,2,5,8-11Contro et al. having recently reported three. Their successful treatment of one case2indicates the possibility of correction if the condition is recognized early. Report of a Case A 3½-month-old white girl was first admitted to this hospital on March 21, 1955, with cyanosis and severe dyspnea. The infant, carried full