Idiopathic spontaneous pulmonary torsion of the lingula: A case report

Spontaneous pulmonary torsion is an extremely rare event and is known to occur as a complication of thoracic surgery and traumatic injuries.

An 18-year-old man presented to our hospital with pain in the left back region. Clinical examination, computed tomography and bronchoscopy are crucial for diagnosis of pulmonary torsion. During thoracotomy, the lingula segment was observed to be bent on the head side and turned 180° counterclockwise; subsequently, lingulectomy was performed.

Spontaneous pulmonary torsion may occur in pulmonary conditions such as pneumothorax, atelectasis, infection, pleural effusion, congenital defect, or tumor. Furthermore, it can be speculated that torsion of the segment is possible only in the patients with an accessory fissure or those who have undergone a segmentectomy.

We have reported an extremely rare case with respect to the fact that the pulmonary torsion occurred spontaneously in an unseparated segment, and that the etiological factor could not be identified.