Management of traumatic aortic rupture

Abstract

A traumatic thoracic aortic injury is a severe and life-threatening clinical entity. Although largely fatal; if untreated, these injuries are amenable to surgical repair if appropriately diagnosed. Therefore, early triage of this condition is critically important. Unfortunately, aortic injuries rarely occur in isolation, and there has been no good cutoff value to help select the appropriate surgical strategy. Algorithms for the both diagnosis and treatment of traumatic thoracic aortic injury have undergone changes in recent years. There have been several case reports, retrospective series and registry data describing the treatment of patients with traumatic thoracic aortic rupture using endovascular treatment. Endovascular treatment is a less-invasive management option for polytraumatized patients. Because it is less invasive, without the need for thoracotomy or the use of heparin, endovascular repair can be performed even in acutely injured patients, without the risk of destabilizing pulmonary, head or abdominal traumatic lesions. Long-term follow-up especially in young patients is necessary after endovascular treatment.