How is acute aortic syndrome treated with intervention?

  Acute aortic syndromes (AAS) are a group of aortic disorders with similar clinical symptoms mainly characterized by typical “aortic pain”, but with different etiologies and pathophysiological mechanisms, including typical aortic dissection (AD), intra-aortic hematoma (IMH) and aortic penetrating ulcer (PAU). AD, intramural aortic hematoma (IMH) and penetrating aortic ulcer (PAU), traumatic aortic dissection and aneurysm rupture. This is a group of diseases that can exist in combination or transform each other. Acute aortic syndrome has a poor prognosis and accounts for a high proportion of overall cardiovascular mortality, posing a serious threat to human health and life. Due to the development of modern imaging techniques and the improvement of treatment, the understanding of acute aortic syndromes has improved, allowing for an early and definitive diagnosis and selection of appropriate treatment to improve the patient’s prognosis. Acute aortic syndromes have a poor prognosis and are a serious group of life-threatening diseases. The mortality rate of acute type A aortic coarctation reaches 1% to 2% per hour within 24 to 48 hours after the attack, and the mortality rate of only conservative medical treatment at 24 and 48 hours is 20% and 30% respectively, while the mortality rate of surgical treatment is about 15% to 35% and the analysis of retrospective survey shows that the mortality rate of surgical treatment at 30 The in-hospital 30-day mortality rate for type B aortic coarctation was 10% and the 4- to 5-year survival rate for conservative treatment was 60% to 80% and the 10-year survival rate was 40% to 45% while The surgical mortality rate for acute type B entrapment is higher, about 35% to 75%. The mortality rate is even higher if the entrapment involves important vascular branches causing organ ischemia. Acute aortic intramural hematoma occurs in about 30% aortic dissection occurs more often in type A than in type B. Chronic disease is usually stable or spontaneously resolved.  Murray et al. reported that 80 intramural hematomas involving the ascending aorta had complication formation, especially the development of classic coarctation, whereas only 12 intramural hematomas of the descending aorta had life-threatening complication formation. The mortality rate for type B intramural hematoma was approximately 14% and the mortality rate for drug therapy was approximately 20% with no significant difference between the two. The natural prognosis of aortic penetrating ulcers remains less clear and controversial, with Harris et al. suggesting slow progression and a low incidence of life-threatening complications such as rupture, but most reports suggest a poor prognosis, even worse than that of aortic coarctation, with about 40%-50% symptomatic acute patients developing aortic coarctation or rupture, which can be a serious threat to patient life. The bias between the two is caused by selective differences in patients, with Harris et al. patients less likely to have symptoms such as chest pain.  There are three treatments for aortic syndrome, pharmacological, surgical and interventional. The general treatment principle is to choose surgical treatment for type A lesions, while type B lesions show different situations to choose conservative treatment with drugs, surgical treatment or interventional treatment. Pharmacological treatment is the basic treatment, the main purpose of which is to relieve pain and reduce blood pressure and left ventricular ejection rate. Drugs such as morphine are used to relieve pain, and receptor blockers are used to control systolic blood pressure below 120 mmHg and heart rate below 60 beats per minute. In severe hypertension, the vasodilator sodium nitroprusside can be applied simultaneously, and calcium antagonists can be used if receptor blockers cannot be applied. Surgical treatment is the main treatment for type A lesions, the main purpose of which is to prevent aortic rupture or pericardial tamponade; eliminate aortic regurgitation and avoid myocardial ischemia.  Interventional therapy is a new way of treating acute aortic syndrome developed in the early 1990s and is an evolving technique that includes percutaneous endarterectomy, luminal repair with overlying stents, and stenting of branch vessels.  (The purpose of percutaneous endovascular aortic windowing is to return the blood flow from the false lumen to the true lumen, thereby reducing the pressure gradient between the true lumen and the false lumen and improving the perfusion of distal organs and tissues, which may help to prevent rupture of the outer wall of the false lumen. In this technique, an intravascular ultrasound probe is placed in one lumen and a puncture needle is placed in the other lumen. The ultrasound probe guides the site and direction of the puncture needle, and the endoluminal piece is penetrated and then a balloon is used to dilate the window rupture. The indications are significant enlargement of the false lumen, significant compression of the true lumen, and acute ischemia of the abdominal organs or lower extremities due to compression of the mesenteric artery, renal artery opening, or lower extremity arteries originating from the true lumen due to the tight fit of the endothelial sheet. The technical success rate of percutaneous endarterectomy is more than 90% it relieves acute ischemia caused by severe compression of the true lumen to a certain extent, but after all, it is a palliative treatment for aortic coarctation, and some cases require simultaneous stenting of branch vessels; moreover, with the development of intracavitary repair of overlapping stents for aortic coarctation, the ischemia of branch vessels can be relieved by the placement of overlapping stents. Therefore, if endoluminal repair is not available and the patient’s ischemic symptoms are severe, endotomy can be applied first to buy time and opportunity for the next treatment.  (b) Stenting of branch vessels The main purpose of stenting of branch vessels of aorta is to improve the blood flow of branch vessels and restore the perfusion of important organs. At present, it is mainly aimed at the static and mixed ischemia caused by the entrapment involving branch vessels.  (In 1991, Parodi et al. performed stenting for abdominal aortic aneurysm, and in 1994, Dake et al. applied this technique to thoracic descending aortic aneurysm, and in 1999, Nienaber and Dake applied this technique to type B aortic clamping, and after more than 10 years of development, this minimally invasive technique has been more widely used with improved stenting and technical refinement, with satisfactory results in the near to mid-term, becoming an alternative to surgical treatment for some patients with acute aortic syndromes. The therapeutic objectives of overlapping stent endoluminal repair are to close the endothelial tear, block the blood flow between the true and false lumen, dilate the true lumen, and compress the false lumen, thus promoting thrombosis of the false lumen and expansion of the true lumen, preventing rupture of the false lumen and improving the blood supply to the distal ischemic branch vessels.  At present, there is still some controversy in the selection of indications for endoluminal repair with overlapping stents, and the following cases are generally considered suitable for intervention: (1) Type B aortic coarctation: rupture or propensity to rupture; abdominal or lower extremity ischemia; severe chest pain uncontrolled by medication or hypertension uncontrolled by medication; descending aortic diameter greater than 5 cm or increasing by 0.5 cm/6 months at follow-up.  (2) Type B aortic penetrating ulcer: persistent chest pain or recurrent pain; hemodynamic instability; deepening and increasing ulcer; rapid expansion of aortic diameter; imminent rupture, etc.  (3) Anchor zone ≥ 1.5 cm and normal aortic diameter in the anchor zone ≤ 38 cm. (4) Iliofemoral artery without high tortuosity or stenosis suitable for stent system placement.