Type A Aortic Dissection Presenting with Acute Lower Extremity Vascular Insufficiency in the Absence of Chest Pain

We report a case of a 53 year-old man with a history of hypertension presenting with acute left lower extremity parasthesias and pulselessness initially presumed to be secondary to arterial thrombosis or embolism. Work-up included a transthoracic echocardiogram which revealed an aortic dissection at...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Open Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery 2012-02, Vol.2012 (2012), p.1-4
Main Authors: Earl, Thomas J., Poppas, Athena
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Blood clot
Case Report
Chest pain
Dissecting aneurysm
Hypertension
Surgery
Thrombosis
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We report a case of a 53 year-old man with a history of hypertension presenting with acute left lower extremity parasthesias and pulselessness initially presumed to be secondary to arterial thrombosis or embolism. Work-up included a transthoracic echocardiogram which revealed an aortic dissection at the level of the aortic root extending to the visualized portions of the descending aorta. Type A aortic dissections are relatively rare, with the vast majority of patients presenting with chest pain. Timely diagnosis of Type A aortic dissections are critical as to facilitate rapid surgical repair. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a painless Type A aortic dissection presenting with isolated lower extremity vascular insufficiency and demonstrates the potential role of transthoracic echocardiography as a rapid, non-invasive bedside modality in visualizing Type A aortic dissections.
ISSN:1179-0652
1179-0652
DOI:10.4137/OJCS.S8042