[Traumatic dissection of the aorta (external and iatrogenic traumas)]

The authors are looking over the notion of traumatic aortic dissection and introducing to its forms accepted today. The definition of the disease changed within the advance of medicine, it has been on the one hand tightened and increased on the other. In the era of the non-invasive medicine, with the external mechanical injuries also the physical and mental strains has been regarded as causes of the aortic dissection. By the widening spread of the invasive medicine a new category of aortic dissection has been appeared namely the iatrogenic trauma. Nowadays, those aortic dissections may be regarded as traumatic ones, which have been connected with external mechanical (indirect) or internal iatrogenic (direct) injuries. According to recent data, the incidence of traumatic aortic dissection is growing. The reasons for this are the expanding motorization, arteriosclerosis and the increasing age of life.