Esophageal compression by a common left pulmonary venous trunk

Dysphagia is a symptom with diverse etiologies including luminal narrowing of the esophagus and motility disorders. Arterial vessels are known to compress the esophagus and cause luminal narrowing. However, identifying a pulmonary venous compression of the esophagus rarely occurs in a patient with dysphagia. The technology available at the time of the few prior case reports published more than three decades ago limited the analysis of the pulmonary vessels. We report a case that utilized CT-angiography as well as multiplanar reconstructions and three-dimensional imaging to demonstrate that esophageal compression in the patient presenting with dysphagia was caused by a large left common pulmonary vein.