title: Stanford type A aortic dissection. A new surgical approach.
abstract: We describe a new surgical technique adopted for the repair of Stanford type A aortic dissection. In order to minimize the risk of malperfusion caused by retrograde flow during cardiopulmonary bypass, we avoid femoral artery cannulation. On the hypothesis that it is best not to interfere with the hemodynamics of the dissection, we cannulate the dissected ascending aorta, in either the true or false lumen. We here report 2 cases of successful surgical treatment of Stanford type A aortic dissection. In both cases, the false lumen was cannulated under deep hypothermic circulatory arrest, without clamping the aorta. While the patient was cooling, a 10-mm GORE-TEX side arm was sutured to a Dacron graft prosthesis. Repair of the aortic arch was carried out 1st. The aortic cannula was inserted into the GORE-TEX side arm, the tubular prosthesis was cross-clamped, and cardiopulmonary bypass was reinstituted. After this, the aortic bulb was repaired as usual and the tubular prosthesis was sutured to the bulb. No postoperative cerebral complication occurred. Our experience must be confirmed by more cases and a longer follow up.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac Surgery, University of Genoa, Hospital San Martino, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lijoi
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Scarano
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Dottori
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Parodi
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Casali
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bartolozzi
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000784:Aortic Dissection / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D017541:Aneurysm, False / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery; D017545:Aortic Aneurysm, Thoracic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D001027:Aortography; D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D001807:Blood Vessel Prosthesis; D019917:Blood Vessel Prosthesis Implantation / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D002315:Cardiopulmonary Bypass; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011093:Polyethylene Terephthalates; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D018608:Ultrasonography, Doppler
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D011093:Polyethylene Terephthalates