[Diagnosis and therapy of acute traumatic aortic rupture]

Aortic transection is defined as complete or partial dehiscence of the aortic wall layers. Aortic transections are seen in 16% of all lethal traffic accidents. The quality of the first emergency care outside hospital and the organization of rescue systems result in an increasing number of patients (espec. with life-threatening multiple injuries incl. atypical aortic lesions) reaching a trauma-center. Guide-lines for surgical indications are: 1. emergency-operation in case of symptomatic transection incl. simultaneous surgery of concommitant lesions. 2. Urgent operation following primary hemodynamic stabilisation in cases of isolated or asymptomatic transection. 3. In cases of concommitant lesions with surgical priority, delayed operation of asymptomatic transection. The perioperative letality claims up to 20%. Next of operative complication paraplegia remains the most deleterious problem. Despite different methods of protection on the spinal cord the incidence of paraplegia persists in the range of 5-10%.