Percutaneous Endovascular Graft Repair of Traumatic Aortic Disruption

Traumatic aortic disruption is a rare but devastating injury, with approximately 80% to 90% of patients dying in the field. Inhospital mortality among the survivors is 30%. Patients who survive to hospital admission typically have contained ruptures in addition to other devastating injuries that must be treated before aortic repair. These authors from a single center report on 20 consecutive cases of endovascular repair of aortic dissections due to blunt trauma, with percutaneous access via cutdown at the femoral artery.

During the study period, 2 patients with traumatic aortic dissection were excluded because they required open repair due to instability or severity of the anatomic disruption. Among the 20 patients who underwent endovascular…