A New Aortic Root Reinforcement Technique for Acute Type A Aortic Dissection Surgery

Reinforcing the dissected and fragile aortic root is critical in acute type A aortic dissection (ATAAD) surgery. This study introduces our new aortic root reinforcement technique and reports our early operative results and midterm follow-up results.A retrospective analysis study was performed on 235 patients (aged 53.2 ±15.5 years) who were admitted to our hospital for ATAAD surgery and underwent the procedure with our new technique between October 2011 and June 2016. Two vascular graft rings were placed inside and outside aortic root, followed by a running horizontal mattress suture, placed just above the coronary artery ostiums and aortic valve commissures, with another horizontal suture at distal end of the aortic root stump, to reinforce the inner vascular graft, aortic wall, and outside vascular graft. Then additional 3-5 vertical mattress sutures were placed for further reinforcement within the reconstructed aortic root. Computed tomography angiography was performed at discharge and annually during follow-up.The patients' 30-day mortality was 5.1% (12/235). There was no uncontrollable intraoperative bleeding from the aortic root, and re-exploration for bleeding occurred in 0.79% (2/235). The survival rate was 90.2% during follow-up of 4.2 ± 2.1 years. There were no requests for aortic root reoperations during follow-up. All patients were free from aortic root disruptions, proximal anastomosis complications, and re-dissections of the reconstructed aortic root.Our new aortic root reinforcement technique provides a safe and effective technique for aortic root in ATAAD surgery, by reinforcing friable aortic root tissues and minimizing aortic root complications.