[Cardiac Arrest During Thoracic Surgery for Left Lung Cancer]

A 69-year-old man was referred to our hospital due to an abnormal chest shadow on computed tomography (CT) scan. He underwent thoracoscopic left upper lobectomy followed by mediastinal lymph node dissection under the frozen-section diagnosis of lung cancer. During the left upper mediastinal lymph-node dissection, grasping fat tissue including cardiac branches of the vagus nerve led to cardiac arrest. It is known that left-side upper mediastinal lymph-node dissection can potentially trigger cardiac arrest. Therefore, it is crucial to proceed surgery with caution and to alert anesthesiologists to pay an attention to the risk of cardiac arrest.