Acute aortic dissection after off-pump coronary artery surgery.

Iatrogenic aortic dissection has been described, albeit infrequently, after coronary artery surgery performed under cardiopulmonary bypass. Since the advent of beating heart coronary surgery, several authors have described an apparent increase of this complication related to the application of a lateral clamp on the ascending aorta to perform the proximal anastomosis. We describe the case of a 70 years old patient who presented aortic dissection, with immediate paraplegia, 7 days after off-pump coronary surgery.