Conservative treatment of spontaneous and isolated dissection of mesenteric arteries

Isolated and spontaneous dissection of mesenteric arteries is a rare entity; a little more than 50 cases have been reported in medical literature. There is no therapeutic consensus concerning this type of lesion.

In this study, we report the results of our treatment based on a conservative approach. This retrospective study concerns eight patients with dissection of the celiac trunk and/or of the upper mesenteric artery (UMA) who were treated between 2002 and 2006. Because these patients were not presenting with acute intestinal ischemia diagnosed by clinical examination or paraclinical tests (medical imaging/biology) or with vital complications, they were treated with an efficient anticoagulation (heparin followed by anti-vitamin K) for 3 to 6 months. Endovascular or surgical treatment was used as the first option in patients with obvious intestinal ischemia or likely to have an arterial rupture, and also when medical treatment had failed. Clinical and radiological follow-up was at 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year and then every year. Seven men and one woman (mean age, 48.2; age range, 38-53 years) were treated. Six patients presented with isolated dissection (celiac trunk=4, UMA=2). One patient had a celiac trunk and a UMA dissection and one had a celiac trunk and a UMA dissection along with a dissection of his two renal arteries. On entering the hospital, a patient was operated on for mesenteric ischemia related to a stenosis of the upper mesenteric artery (upper aortomesenteric bypass); a covered stent was implanted in the celiac trunk of another patient presenting with a contained rupture.

Both patients were successfully treated. Six patients were medically treated. One of them required an aortohepatic bypass to treat an aneurysmal evolution of the celiac trunk revealed by a computed tomography scan obtained 1 month after the symptoms had begun. In one patient, the dissection remained stable on imaging. Four patients were cured, with a mean 20.1-month follow-up.

Conservative treatment of spontaneous dissections of mesenteric arteries is possible when there are no complications, and it gives satisfactory results provided regular clinical and radiological checking is performed.