Anatomical consideration of the cardiac plexus to prevent grave bradycardiac arrhythmias associated with lung cancer surgery: a case report.

We present a patient who was complicated with lethal arrhythmias during lung cancer surgery for the purpose of elucidating, from anatomical viewpoint, the relationship between arrhythmias and the involvement of cardiac plexus during lymph node dissection. The result showed that arrhythmia was inadvertently elicited by cardiac plexus stimulation during lymph nodes dissection around the vagus nerve. It is important to be familiar not only with the course of phrenic, vagus, and recurrent laryngeal nerve but also the anatomy of cardiac plexus to prevent arrhythmic complications in lung cancer surgery.