Successful resection of esophageal cancer with right aortic arch by video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery: a case report.

The right aortic arch (RAA) forms a vascular ring, encircling both the esophagus and trachea. We herein report a case of thoracic esophageal cancer with RAA successfully resected using video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). A 64-year-old man who presented with a complaint of abdominal pain, was admitted to our hospital. Further examinations revealed gall stones and multiple superficial esophageal carcinomas. Three-dimensional computed tomographic images showed RAA and aortic diverticulum. The trachea and esophagus were completely encircled by the RAA, the aortic diverticulum and the pulmonary artery. We successfully and safely performed VATS esophagectomy for esophageal cancer accompanied with RAA. To the best of our knowledge, this report is the first case for which VATS esophagectomy for esophageal cancer, accompanied with RAA, was carried out. Marking of the left recurrent laryngeal nerve with colored tape at the cervical part of the surgery made it easy to identify it during the thoracoscopic part of the surgery.