Surgical treatment of a floating thrombus of the ascending aorta causing repeated arterial embolisms.

Floating thrombus of the ascending aorta is a rare and often ignored cause of peripheral embolic events. We report the observation of a patient presenting recurrent peripheral embolic demonstrations: acute ischemia of the right lower limb complicated of a thigh amputation and transient cerebrovascular accident. The assessment by angioscanner highlighted a 40-mm thrombus of the ascending aorta. The thrombus was removed surgically. This diagnosis should not be ignored in the assessment of an embolic pathology with the risk of severe functional after-effects caused by an important diagnostic delay.