A 50-year-old female patient presented with the incidental finding of an anterior mediastinal mass on chest radiography during a routine health examination in October 2020. No related subjective symptoms were reported and the physical examination showed no abnormalities. Contrast-enhanced computerized tomography (CT) of the chest showed a 4.8 × 4.6 cm anterior mediastinal mass with significant homogenous enhancement after injection of the contrast (mean CT values before and after contrast injection were 38 and 115 HU, respectively), suggesting a diagnosis of Castleman's disease, but not excluding thymoma ().\nThe patient underwent surgical resection of the anterior mediastinal mass under a thoracoscopic approach. After the intubation of the single lumen tube with a bronchial obstruction balloon, single lung ventilation on the contralateral side was performed under general anesthesia. The patient was placed in the lateral position with a retroversion of 30°. The operation was performed via a single-utility port: the endoscopic port was a 1-cm incision at the 6th intercostal space in the midclavicular line, and the utility port was a 3-cm incision at the 4th intercostal space along the anterior axillary line. Intraoperatively, the anterior mediastinal mass was determined to be an aneurysm originating from the left innominate vein. Through careful surgical manipulations and adequate exposure of the operative field, the root of the aneurysm was fully dissected and ligated, and then the root vessel was divided with a cutter closure (). Postoperative pathology confirmed the diagnosis of left innominate vein aneurysm. The patient experienced an uneventful postoperative course. The thoracic drainage tube was removed on postoperative day 1 after chest X-ray imaging showed complete re-expansion of the lung, with no obvious pneumothorax or hydrothorax. She was discharged from the hospital on postoperative day 2. At her 6-month follow-up, the patient did not report any specific discomfort.
A 52-year-old male patient was admitted to the hospital due to an irritating cough for more than 1 month. He had no recent history of chest trauma surgery or respiratory diseases. A chest CT scan showed anterior mediastinal space, and showed differential diagnosis of teratoma, thymoma and lymphomas, in order to clarify the relationship between the space-occupying lesions and blood vessels and surrounding tissues, a chest-enhanced CT examination was performed. After intravenous injection of contrast medium, a dual-phase scan was performed. It was found that there was a localized aneurysm-like expansion in the left brachiocephalic vein and its diameter was 5.2 cm with the smooth edge (Fig. ), which confirmed the diagnosis of venous aneurysm. After careful evaluation of the patient, surgery was performed.\nA median sternum incision was selected in the surgery. During the operation, a huge aneurysm is found to be located in front of the left brachiocephalic vein. The aneurysm and surrounding tissues were carefully separated to prevent uncontrollable bleeding during the process, and to mechanical damage caused by extracorporeal circulation. We first performed heparinization of the whole body blood, and blocked both ends of the brachiocephalic vein, separated the fibrous membrane of the venous blood vessel, and found that the aneurysm wall was thin. The aneurysm was cystic expansion, and there as a larger aneurysm neck connected to it. After the aneurysm was removed, a double-layer continuous suture with 5–0 prolene thread was used to suture the brachiocephalic vein. We paid attention to the shape of the normal brachiocephalic vein during the suture process. To prevent vascular distortion and lumen stenosis, we carefully loosened the blocking bands at both ends before knotting, determined the shape of the formed blood vessel, and expelled the possible air (Fig. ). After confirming that there is no obvious active bleeding, heparin was neutralized with protamine, and the operation ended after the sternum is fixed by the wire.\nThe mediastinal drainage tube was removed on the third day after the operation, and the patient was discharged from the hospital 2 days later. Postoperative pathology showed that the specimen was thinned venous wall tissue (Fig. ). He was followed up for 6 months, and there was no obvious abnormality in the chest enhanced CT, with good recovery.