Cannulating a dissecting aorta using ultrasound-epiaortic and transesophageal guidance.

Management of acute Stanford type A aortic dissection remains a major surgical challenge. Directly cannulating the ascending aorta provides a rapid establishment of cardiopulmonary bypass but consists of risks such as complete rupture of the aorta, false lumen cannulation, subsequent malperfusion and propagation of the dissection.We describe a technique of cannulating the ascending aorta in patients with acute aortic dissection that can be performed rapidly in hemodynamically unstable patients under ultrasound-epiaortic and transesophageal (TEE) guidance.