Successful surgical correction of acute ascending aortic dissection: a case report

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.