Disseminated intravascular coagulation in dissecting aortic aneurysm. A case report.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
SEARCH · PubMed Health
Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
OBJECTIVE: Emergency surgical intervention for acute type A aortic dissection complicated by stroke remains controversial. The urgency of immediate repair in this setting is tempered by the concern that cerebral reperfusion may worsen neurologic outcome. The purpose of this study was to report and analyze our results with acute type A aortic dissection complicated by stroke. METHODS: Between September 1999 and March 2005, 151 consecutive patients presented with acute type A aortic dissection. Of this group, 16 (10.6%) patients had sustained a preoperative stroke. Mean age was 56 years (range 43-73 years), with 6 (38%) women. Right hemispheric, left hemispheric, and bilateral strokes occurred in 81%, 13%, and 6%, respectively. Computed tomographic scan or transesophageal echocardiography diagnosed aortic dissection; clinical examination, computed tomographic scan, or transcranial Doppler ultrasound diagnosed stroke. Aortic repair was performed with cardiopulmonary bypass, profound hypothermic circulatory arrest, and retrograde cerebral perfusion. One patient with complete neurologic devastation (coma) was not operated on. RESULTS: Overall hospital mortality was 18.8% (3/16). Mortality in 2 patients who did not undergo surgery (1 patient who was neurologically devastated, and 1 patient whose aorta ruptured while awaiting surgery) was 100% (2/2). Operative mortality was 7% (1/14). Among patients undergoing surgery, neurologic status completely recovered in 2 (14%) patients, improved in 6 (43%) patients, remained the same in 6 (43%) patients, and worsened in none. Median time from onset of stroke to surgery was 9 hours (range 1-240 hours). Eighty percent of patients who underwent surgical repair within 10 hours had improvement in neurologic status, where as none operated on beyond 10 hours improved (P < .02). CONCLUSIONS: In our experience, surgical repair of acute type A aortic dissection can be performed in the setting of preoperative stroke with acceptable mortality. Moreover, no worsening of neurologic condition was observed after surgical repair. Immediate surgical repair is warranted even if acute type A aortic dissection is complicated by stroke.
The role of aortic diameter on the occurrence of type A dissection was investigated in 73 patients with dilated ascending aorta at the time of pre-operative evaluation. Using transthoracic echocardiography for diagnosis and measurements, 54 patients were identified with type A dissection (group 1) and 19 without dissection (group 2). The true mean aortic diameters were identical (6.0 +/- 1.3 cm in group 1 and 6.4 +/- 1.4 cm in group 2; mean +/- SD; ns) as were the indexed aortic diameters (ratio of diameter/body surface area; 3.2 +/- 0.8 cm.m-2 and 3.4 +/- 0.7 cm.m-2, respectively; ns). However, the individual diameters showed a pronounced scatter in both groups (range from 3.6 +/- 11.0 cm). Of the 73 patients, 66 had surgery (47/54 with and 19/19 without dissection) and seven patients were treated medically. Emergency surgery was performed in 45/66 patients (all with acute type A dissection) and elective repair in 21/66 (19 without and two with chronic type A dissection). In-hospital mortality was 18% in the emergency group, 5% in the elective group and 57% in the medical group. It is concluded that patients with dilated ascending aorta have a substantial incidence of acute dissection. Their clinical course is unpredictable: acute dissection occurs in some, and in others the ascending aorta continues to enlarge without dissection. Because patients with dissection often arrive too late for elective repair and have to be operated on as emergencies with a higher operative risk, we recommend elective surgery before the diameter of the ascending aorta has reached 6 cm.
The prognosis of patients with acute aortic dissection is extremely poor, especially when involving the ascending aorta. It has long been recognized as a catastrophic cardiovascular event. Acute dissections involving an ascending aorta have approximately a 90 percent acute mortality rate if left untreated or treated medically. Therefore, nearly all patients with acute ascending aortic dissection should be surgically treated immediately after a diagnosis has been established. A 60-year-old man having an acute ascending aortic dissection was successfully operated on with a resection of the dissecting aorta which was replaced with a Dacron graft. The postoperative course was complicated with a respiratory insufficiency and a disruption of the sternal wound. A 4 years follow-up confirmed the patient was in good condition. This is the first successfully operated case of acute ascending aortic dissection at our hospital.
Aortic dissection after cardiac surgery is a rare complication. The prognosis is often poor: 33-78% of mortality. The study of two cases out of 2100 patients operated upon during the last three years, and the review of the literature, allows to recall the mechanism, the anatomic origin and the different surgical techniques. Early diagnosis is essential. Some preventive techniques may reduce the incidence of the iatrogenic dissections.
A rare case of dissecting aneurysm of the aortic arch with left haemothorax was presented. The authors describe modern methods of visualising diagnostics used in case of suspected dissecting aortic aneurysm.