The purpose of this case presentation is to present a simplified surgical technique when in a patient with acute aortic dissection type A (AAD), aortic arch, and ascending aorta is completely replaced without circulatory arrest. A 67-year old male was presented in our institution with severe chest and back pain at 12 h after the onset of the symptoms. Imaging studies by 3D contrast-enhanced thoracic computed tomography (CT-scan) and transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) revealed ascending aortic dissection towards the aortic arch, which was extending in the proximal descending aorta. We practiced emergency median sternotomy and established cardiopulmonary bypass (CBP) between the right atrium and the right femoral artery with successive cross-clamping of the ascending and descending aorta below the origin of the left subclavian artery (LSA). In normothermic condition without circulatory arrest and with antegrade cerebral perfusion, we replaced the ascending aorta and aortic arch with a four branched Dacron graft. Patient evolution was uneventful, and he was discharged, after fourteen days from the hospital. At a one-year follow-up, 3D CT-scan showed no residual dissection with a well-circulated lumen of the supra-aortic arteries. Using the described surgical approach, CPB was not interrupted, the brain was protected, and hypothermia was no used. This approach made these surgical procedures shorter, and known complications of hypothermia and circulatory arrest are avoided.Acute aortic dissection aortic type A, total arch replacement, normothermia
How to do it: direct true lumen cannulation technique of the ascending aorta in acute aortic dissection type A†