title: Toward Reduction of Post-Hospital Admission Death Rate Caused by Acute Traumatic Aortic Tear.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Terminology and classifications are the vehicles by which pathologic conditions are identified and understood. It is critically important for the patient admitted with suspected blunt thoracic aortic injury that admitting physicians have a thorough knowledge of acute traumatic aortic tear and its natural history.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The objectives of this review were as follows: (1) to introduce a pathology-based terminology and classification of acute traumatic aortic injuries that unambiguously defines each, and (2) to emphasize the clinical relevance of acute traumatic tear to post-hospital admission deaths in blunt thoracoabdominally injured patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a literature review of 32 refereed articles pertaining to acute traumatic thoracic aortic injury published from 1957 to the present.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The terminology used to describe aortic injury is inconsistent. Several terms are often loosely interchanged: tear, laceration, transection, and rupture. Furthermore, classifications of aortic injuries have been proposed based on microscopic or gross pathologic or computed tomography scan results. While microscopically-based classifications have little or no clinical application, a classification based on gross pathology provides information useful for aortic injury prognosis and management.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Reduction of post-hospital death caused by acute aortic tear requires knowledge and understanding of the pathology of acute traumatic aortic tear and its natural history. Such understanding of pathology of acute traumatic aortic tear and its natural history is enhanced by terminology that defines the aortic injury. Therefore, we present our proposed terminology and classification of acute traumatic injuries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging, University of Texas Medical School at Houston, Houston, Texas.
authors.forename: Ronald M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Bilow
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore, Maryland.
authors.forename: Kathirkamanathan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shanmuganathan
authors.affiliation: Private practice, Seminole, Florida.
authors.forename: John H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Harris
mesh_terms: D001011:Aorta / Q000293:injuries*; D001019:Aortic Rupture / Q000145:classification / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D000072226:Computed Tomography Angiography; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D009626:Terminology as Topic
keywords: acute traumatic rupture; acute traumatic tear; aortic injury; blunt trauma postadmission hospital death; minimal aortic injury