51 - Right-sided Aortic Arch and Duplicated Inferior Vena Cava in a Female Cadaver: An Anatomical Case Report

Poster Board Number: 51
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Abstract Body : Right-sided aortic arch (RAA) is a congenital vascular abnormality that occurs in approximately 0.1% of the population and is associated with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. Documented RAA subtypes include mirror-image branching and an aberrant left subclavian artery (LSA), amongst others. A duplicated inferior vena cava (DIVC) is another anomaly found in approximately 1.5% of the population due to left supracardinal vein persistence. In this case report, we present a RAA and a DIVC co-occurring in a 93-year-old female identified during routine cadaveric dissection. RAA direct branches, from proximal to distal, are the left and right common carotid arteries, followed by the right subclavian artery (RSA), and a retroesophageal LSA. The left recurrent laryngeal nerve took a circumferential path around the aortic attachment of the ligamentum arteriosum, remaining anterior to the LSA and posterior to the pulmonary trunk. In contrast, the right recurrent laryngeal nerve was found to pass inferior to the RAA before ascending, a reversal of normal anatomy. The identified DIVC was formed by the left common iliac vein adjoined superiorly to the left renal vein at approximately the L1/L2 vertebral level prior to draining into the IVC. While the full medical history of the individual was not provided, RAA may present asymptomatically and its significance in the absence of cardiac defects is unclear. Similarly, DIVC has been shown to be asymptomatic in nature but has been associated with genitourinary abnormalities. Documentation of these structural anomalies of the vasculature is clinically relevant and provides an opportunity to explore interventional treatment and surgical approaches of cerebrovascular and cardiac conditions in the context of anatomical variations.