Objective: Early thrombosed aortic dissection is a form of aortic dissection and includes the condition called aortic intramural hematoma. It was generally considered as surgical emergency. However, the optimal treatment strategy for acute type A intramural hematoma is becoming controversial after recent studies indicated more benign clinical course for this disease. We evaluated our strategy that integrated medical therapy, serial imaging, and timed surgery.
Methods: We reviewed 34 consecutive patients who were admitted to our hospital for early thrombosed Stanford type A acute aortic dissection from 2006 to 2011. Medical therapy or timed surgery was offered on the basis of radiological findings. Emergency or urgent surgery was not considered for a hemodynamically stable patient unless the ascending aortic diameter was ≧50 mm or the thickness of the thrombosed false lumen was ≧10 mm. Follow-up computed tomography was performed to detect a potential progression to aortic dissection.
Results: During the average follow-up period of 24.3 months, there was no aortic dissection-related mortality. And aortic dissection-related event was not recorded in patients who had surgical repair; however, in patients who did not have surgery, 3 (8.8 %) surgical conversions were recorded due to aortic dissection progression during the follow-up period. Twenty-one patients (61.8 %) ultimately had surgical repair, and 13 patients (38.2 %) had complete medical therapy. The overall survival rate at 3 years was 86.5 %.
Conclusions: Our strategy for the treatment of early thrombosed Stanford type A acute aortic dissection is reasonable, and the mid-term results were acceptable.