Thoracic Surgical Lymphadenectomy

Critical to the diagnosis, staging, and treatment of lung cancer is a complete understanding of thoracic pulmonary anatomy including the intralobar, hilar, and mediastinal lymph nodes. Pulmonary nodal drainage has been well described in clinical pathological studies, and formal international nomenclature for universal identification of the thoracic nodal stations are described and adopted by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) and the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC). Deslauriers and colleagues provide an anatomic summary of the entire nodal thoracic lymphatic system that is a key primer and compilation for understanding lymphatic anatomy and ultimately dissection for thoracic malignancies. The nodal stations and zones are essential knowledge for any physician taking care of patients with lung cancer, and can be found in the AJCC Manual and multiple learning resources…