[Surgical treatment of ascending aortic aneurysm]

Despite of its low incidence ascending aortic aneurysm is an extremely important disease due to its continuous life threatening feature. In spite of advanced diagnostic and surgical and anesthetic methods--developed in the last decade--aneurysm operations have high mortality rate particularly in cases of complications such as rupture or dissection (30-45%). Author discusses data of 55 patients operated on from 1994 to 2001. Overall mortality was 16.4% (28% for acute and 6.6% for scheduled cases) which is considered to be good in comparison to the literature. In good results contribute introduction of new surgical techniques, use of tissue glue, and hypothermic circulatory arrest. Author summarises symptoms, diagnostic modalities, surgical indication, methods of operation, early and late complications based on data from international literature and on his own experience.