Original scientific paper

The accessory thoracic duct in a dog

Martina Đuras Gomerčić ; Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Tomislav Gomerčić ; Department of Biology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Darinka Škrtić ; Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Ana Galov ; Department of Animal Physiology, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Hrvoje Lucić ; Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Snježana Vuković ; Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Hrvoje Gomerčić ; Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

An unusual lymph vessel was found in a male dog of estimated age 5-6 years, probably a German shepherd and Rottweiler cross bred. At the level of the 11th right dorsal intercostal artery a common trunk arising from the cranial cisterna chyli divided into a very thin thoracic duct (ductus thoracicus) with a diameter of 1-2 mm and a much bigger lymphatic vessel with a diameter of 6 mm. The thoracic duct, very thin in its postcardiac segment, was situated in its normal anatomical position while the big lymphatic vessel extended cranially through the
right mediastinum covered with the right mediastinal pleura (pleura mediastinalis dextra). It ran laterally to the origins of the right dorsal intercostal arteries, situated at the ventral border of the right azygos vein, the right surface of the oesophagus and the dorsal wall of the Sussdorff’s cavity (cavum mediastini serosum). At the root of the right lung (radix pulmonis dextra) it crossed the ventral surface of the oesophagus, inclined to the left cranial medistinum and drained into the thoracic duct. We recognized this large lymphatic vessel and its unusual
course as the accessory thoracic duct - an anatomical variation with its origin in the embryonic development of the thoracic duct.

Keywords

dog; Canis familiaris; accessory thoracic duct; ductus thoracicus accessorius; anatomical variation

Hrčak ID:

37322

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/37322

Publication date:

20.4.2009.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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