Successful repair of a syphilitic aortic arch aneurysm accompanied by serious cerebral infarction.

We present a 52-year-old male with a syphilitic aortic arch aneurysm accompanied by relevant extensive cerebral infarction. He was admitted to a local hospital for sudden loss of consciousness, where he was diagnosed with serious cerebral infarction. During his treatment, a multilocular aortic arch aneurysm involving the arch vessels was found incidentally. He was transferred to our hospital for surgical treatment. A preoperative routine laboratory test for syphilis was highly positive, which suggested that the aneurysm was likely caused by syphilis and the cerebral infarction was also induced by the involvement of syphilitic aortitis or arteritis. After 2 weeks of antibiotic therapy for syphilis, total arch replacement was performed successfully using meticulous brain protection with antegrade selective cerebral perfusion and deep hypothermia. He recovered without any further cerebral deficits. The pathological examination of the surgical specimen showed some characteristic changes of syphilitic aortitis.