Aortic dissection. A six year experience with 117 patients.

Acute aortic dissection is a medical emergency that demands immediate recognition and early precise angiographic diagnosis. One hundred seventeen patients were found to have aortic dissection between 1980 and 1986. Clinical presentation is of importance since hypertension favors the presence of type B dissection, whereas normotension or hypotension is usually indicative of a type A lesion. Supportive treatment should allow stabilization for diagnosis by angiography or computerized tomography in order to proceed with early surgical repair of all type A dissections. Management of the acute type B patient should initially be medical, but immediate surgical treatment should be carried out if there is failure to control the hypertension, continued pain, expansion or rupture of the aneurysm (including appearance of a pleural collection), development of a neurologic deficit, or evidence of compromise of a major infradiaphragmatic aortic branch. Any delay in surgical treatment once an indicative complication is identified will have an early adverse effect on prognosis. By applying these guidelines, an overall 65 to 75 percent hospital survival rate should be achieved.