2009 Volume 68 Issue 1 Pages 6-10
The mortality of emergency surgical intervention for type A acute aortic dissection (AAD) has been variously reported as 15-30%. These findings are often derived from series spanning 10-20 years. Recent advances in surgical techniques, anesthesia, and perioperative medical management are likely to have lowered the mortality of emergency operations over the last few years. In fact, many factors, such as surgical techniques, use of sealed prosthesis, access of cardiopulmonary bypass, cerebral protection techniques, and postoperative surveillance have markedly changed during this long time interval, influencing the recently-improved surgical outcomes. For example, open distal anastomosis to avoid aortic cross clamping and antegrade systemic recirculation after distal anastomosis have dramatically improved the early and late outcomes of surgery for AAD. On the other hand, in recent aging society, the number of octogenarians undergoing emergency surgery for AAD has been steadily increasing and this may negate the impact of the beneficial advances. We reviewed clinical trend of the optimal treatment strategy for type A acute aortic dissection and presented our newly modified technique, namely, less invasive quick replacement (LIQR) with rapid re-warming for octogenarians undergoing emergency surgery for type A acute aortic dissection.
