Morphological aspects of the pulmonary veins

Our study was performed on 21 cases, of which 12 were plastic casts and 9 were CT reconstruction. We found that, most frequently (68.75% of the cases), the pulmonary veins were formed by two roots, one superior and one inferior. In 28.13% of cases, the pulmonary veins were formed from three roots (superior, middle and inferior) and in only one case the superior right pulmonary vein had five roots. The venous roots confluence to form the corresponding trunk was at a distance of between 0.5-2 cm. The termination of the superior pulmonary veins was on the upper part of the anterior atrial wall, most commonly in its lateral side. The distance between the right pulmonary veins was between 0.4-3 cm. The inferior pulmonary veins ended on the infero-lateral part of the posterior atrial wall. The distance between the left pulmonary veins was 1.2-3.4 cm. Among the variation in number of the pulmonary veins we met: three cases with three right pulmonary veins and one case when the inferior right pulmonary vein joined terminally the inferior left pulmonary vein, forming a single venous trunk. Supplementary pulmonary veins were encountered only on the right; in one case there were two posterior right pulmonary veins (superior and inferior), in the second case were anterior right pulmonary veins (superior and inferior) and in a third case were three veins, superior, middle and inferior