Successful repair of traumatic aortic tears using left heart bypass

Aortic tears commonly occur in multiply injured patients. Recognizing this injury is important. A chest X-ray is helpful and a CT-angiogram or aortogram confirmatory. After attending to life-threatening injuries, the aortic tear should be repaired immediately. Using the left heart bypass technique has the lowest risk of operative neurologic injury. We review our experience over the last 2 years, discuss our preferred technique and report on the outcome.