The aberrant right subclavian artery: cadaveric study and literature review

Abstract

The ARSA has a relative high incidence in Greeks and a female predominance. The aberrant vessel follows a retroesophageal course in most cases and only one case with a location between trachea and esophagus was detected. The retroesophageal ARSA justifies the wide variety of clinical manifestations and complications occurred.

Prevalence of the aberrant right subclavian artery reported in a published systematic review of cadaveric studies: The impact of an outlier

“…After excluding four of the studies tabulated by Natsis et al () and making corrections to two others (as described above), the unweighted prevalence of ARSA for the 11 remaining studies combined was 1.23%, and the PPE was slightly higher (1.30%, CI= 0.86–1.82%) (Table ). The I 2 for heterogeneity (not shown) was not high but the CI was wide (29.7%, CI =0.00–65.40%).…”

“…Cairney's () report was tabulated in the SR (Natsis et al, ) as 19/2,494 or 0.8%. Cairney's compilation, however, included four studies also tabulated separately in the SR.…”

“…Liechty et al's () report was tabulated as “2/1000” and “0.2%” in Natsis et al (). The original source, however, as depicted (in drawings) and mentioned in the text, shows “1.3%” (i.e., 13) in all 1000 specimens.…”

“…The range of prevalence was 0.2%‐2.5%, however, in 14 of the 15 studies, with the 13.3% (i.e., 133/1000) figure cited by Natsis et al () as being from a report (Holzapfel, ) published in German. Since the 13.3% figure accounted for 133 (40.9%) of all 325 cases, the present review examined this apparent outlier in detail, along with the other studies included in the SR by Natsis et al ().…”

Unusual symptomatic late onset presentation of aberrant right subclavian artery: report of two cases and short literature review

“…In this situation, the right subclavian artery does not originate from brachiocephalic trunk, but distally and dorsally of the left subclavian artery [3]. Therefore, it typically has retroeophageal course and proceeds between the esophagus and spine in the 80% of the cases [6][7][8]. This anomaly is attributed to involution of the 4 th aortic arch during the 6 th to 8 th week of gestation.…”