Clinical study on the surgical cases of the ruptured thoracic aortic aneurysm

The prognosis of the ruptured thoracic aortic aneurysm is poor. Even if the surgical treatment was performed, the clinical outcome does not sufficiently satisfy us. Between January 1978 to July 1999, 171 cases of thoracic aortic surgery were operated in our department, in which 12 patients were with the ruptured thoracic aortic aneurysm without acute dissection. The aneurysm was located in ascending aorta (2), aortic arch (6), descending aorta (3), and thoracoabdominal aorta (1). The aneurysm was ruptured into thorax (4), pericardium (2), mediastinum (3), lung (2), and esophagus (1). The operative procedure was artificial vascular graft replacement (9), patch closure (2), and aneurysmal interposition (1) bypass with ascending aorta to abdominal aorta)]. The operations were performed during hypothermic circulatory arrest with antegrade selective cerebral perfusion (6), under total (1) or partial complete extracorporeal circulation (5). The hospital death was 33% (4/12). The causes of death were cerebral complication (2), sepsis (1), and multiple organ failure (1). The 12 patients were divided into 2 groups: group A; 8 cases with alive; group D; 4 cases with hospital death. We compared and analyzed the perioperative factors of these 2 groups. On intraoperative factors, operation time (minute) demonstrated a significant difference (498 +/- 129 in group A v.s. 851 +/- 227 in group D, p < 0.05). No significant difference was observed between the groups on extracorporeal circulation time, aortic clumping time, selective cerebral perfusion time, systemic circulatory arrest time, intraoperative blood loss, and blood transfusion. The postoperative major complication was revealed in 6 cases (50%, 6/12), cerebral infarction (3), sepsis (2), and hoarsness (1). In conclusions, to make an effort to shorten an operative time as possible, and to prevent the postoperative neurological dysfunction under selective cerebral perfusion, those efforts should contribute to a good postoperative outcome for the ruptured thoracic aortic aneurysm.