Eur J Anat, 23 (6): 465-468 (2019)

An unusual arrangement ofaccessory fissures observed in left lung

Madhumitha Pandiaraja¹, Sreenivasulu R. Mogali²

¹University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom,²Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, 308232 Singapore

ABSTRACT Anatomical variation of pulmonary fissures and lobes is common, and may be a source of confu-sion in the interpretation of signs seen on chest imaging. We report a very rare case of three pul-monary fissures in a plastinated specimen of a left lung, producing a unique lobar pattern consisting of four lobes. To our knowledge, this is the first report of three complete fissures dividing the left lung into four distinct lobes. A left minor fissure courses obliquely across the upper lobe, distin-guishing the lingula from the rest of the upper lobe while an inferior accessory fissure demarcates the antero-medial basal segment from the other bron-chopulmonary segments of the lower lobe . Recog-nising the existence of such rare variants is crucial for surgeons performing lobectomies or surgical resection of the lungs. It is also of great clinical significance to radiologists interpreting chest radio-graphs and computerised tomography (CT) scans to identify and diagnose lung lesions.

Keywords: Accessory fissures â?? Accessory lobes â?? Lobectomy â?? Lung variations â?? Bronchopulmo-nary abnormalities