Treatment and Outcome of Acute Aortic Dissection Associated with Atherosclerotic Aortic Aneurysm

(Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Hitachi General Hospital, Hitachi, Japan)

Hiroaki Sakamoto Masataka Sato Yasunori Watanabe
We set out to assess our treatment strategy of acute aortic dissection associated with atherosclerotic aortic aneurysm, and to assess its results. A total of 228 patients with acute aortic dissection were admitted to our hospital between 1994 and 2009. Among these, 30 cases were associated with atherosclerotic aortic aneurysm and we retrospectively analyzed their patient data. Of these, 5 patients received diagnoses of Stanford A dissection and 25 patients demonstrated Stanford B. Coexisting aneurysms consisted of postabdominal aortic replacement in 9 patients, ascending aortic aneurysm in 1, arch aortic aneurysm in 6, descending aortic aneurysm in 2, thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm in 3, and abdominal aortic aneurysm in 9. Patients were divided into 3 groups based on the relationship between aneurysm and dissection:acute aortic dissection occurred after graft replacement of an aortic aneurysm(Group 1, n=9), dissection coexisted with aneurysm in a different segment of the aorta(Group 2, n=8), and dissection extended to or involved the aneurysm(Group 3, n=13). Our treatment strategy for all patients excluding those with aortic rupture or malperfusion is described below. In the cases of Stanford A dissection, emergency ascending aortic replacement or total arch replacement was performed. In cases of Stanford B, patients were treated conservatively in the acute phase. Surgery for the coexisting aortic aneurysm was then performed in the chronic phase, if the aneurysm was large. We think that the interval between dissection onset and aneurysm surgery should be extended to at least 1 month, because the aortic wall was too fragile to perform anastomosis in the acute phase in the present cases. As a result, there were 2 hospital deaths in Group 3, but there was no aortic rupture during treatment in the acute phase in any of these 3 groups. There were no vascular-related deaths during follow up. Our treatment strategy obtained favorable outcomes.
  Jpn. J. Cardiovasc. Surg. 40:221-226(2011)

Keywords:aortic dissection, thoracic aortic aneurysm, thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm, abdominal aortic aneurysm