[Lung cancer in patient with a common trunk of left pulmonary veins; report of two cases].

A 69-year-old man and a 53-year-old man with lung cancer of left upper lobe underwent pulmonary resection. A preoperative chest computed tomography (CT) scan showed the left superior and inferior pulmonary veins forming a common trunk. In the former case, the common trunk was misidentified as the superior pulmonary vein. The latter was recognized preoperatively by using 3-dimensional CT, and successfully performed left superior segmentectomy. This variation type is surgically important because of a potential risk of intraoperative bleeding and damage to pulmonary circulation during pulmonary resection.