A case of anomalous bronchial artery ramified from coronary artery

There have been no anatomical reports on the origin of the bronchial artery derived from the coronary artery. In a 2006 cadaveric dissection course, an anomalous bronchial artery that reached the middle lobe of the right lung from the left coronary artery was observed in an 88-year-old Japanese man. In this specimen, the circumflex branch of the left coronary artery passed under the left auricle in the coronary sulcus and bifurcated to three branches (left marginal branch, posterior left ventricular branch, atrial branch), which were 3.2–3.4 mm in diameter. The atrial branch intersected on the surface of the great cardiac vein, ran along the oblique vein of the left atrium, and reached the atrial side of the transverse pericardial sinus, and then divided into two branches. One of them led to the right atrium. The other branch passed between two right superior pulmonary veins, which derived from superior and middle lobes of the right lung, respectively, through the hilum of the lung along the right superior pulmonary vein derived from the middle lobe, and finally became the bronchial artery in the middle lobe of the right lung. In the middle lobe, the bronchial artery divided into a thin branch along the pulmonary vein for the lateral segment, ran along the surface of the right middle bronchus, and then reached the medial segment, being wedged between the segmental bronchus and vein.