[Pulmonary sequestration]

The author discusses pulmonary sequestration which is a rare developmental anomaly difficult for diagnosis. Eleven patients were under observation and underwent operation for pulmonary sequestration (8 with intralobar and 3 with extralobar) which accounted for 2.4% of patients with congenital developmental anomalies of the lungs and for 0.48% of those with chronic unspecific disease of the lung. Complete clinical radiological examination, including aortography, made it possible to recognize the anomaly before the operation in 6 patients. In the remaining patients sequestration of the pulmonary tissue was an operative finding. Preoperative functional study of pulmonary circulation revealed a marked left-to-right shunt of the blood, increased oxygenation of blood in the superior vena cava and saturation of arterial and venous blood with oxygen (to 94 and 91%, respectively, on the average). Analysis of clinical, radiological, and morphological data allowed three main forms of pulmonary sequestration to be distinguished: cystic-abscessed, pseudotumorous, and fibrous-atelectatic.