How to defuse the “untimely bomb” in the body

  Recently, a multidisciplinary team successfully performed Bentall surgery for a patient with Standford A acute aortic coarctation, and the patient will be discharged from the hospital in the near future.  Patient Nie, male, 40 years old, was admitted to the hospital with “severe pain in the chest and back for 4 hours”. The patient had a sudden onset of severe pain in the chest and back 4 hours ago and was urgently transferred to our hospital because of suspected aortic coarctation on chest CT at the local county hospital. After emergency admission to the cardiothoracic surgery ICU, blood pressure and heart rate were actively controlled, and aortic CTA examination was performed, which showed that Standford type A aortic coarctation had spread from the root of the ascending aorta to the femoral arteries on both sides, and the diameter of the ascending aorta was 6.1 cm at its widest (not more than 4 cm in normal people).  The cardiothoracic surgery department immediately organized intra-departmental discussion to study the treatment plan. As the patient had acute Standford type A coarctation, surgery was required as soon as possible, and the aortic valve and coronary artery opening had been involved, so “aortic valve replacement + coronary artery opening graft + ascending aortic replacement” (referred to as Bentall procedure) might be required. The patient’s family believed in the strength of our hospital and strongly requested to operate in our hospital. After reporting to the medical department for approval, we immediately requested the transfusion department to prepare a total of about 5,000 ml of red blood cells, plasma and platelets, and asked the anesthesia department for consultation and joint preoperative preparation.  The operation started at 10:00 am on 21.1.2014. The right femoral artery was incised first, and the femoral artery was cannulated in the true lumen of the femoral artery, then the sternum was split, and it was found that there was already blood accumulation in the pericardium, and the rupture was about 1 cm above the aortic valve, and the aortic valve, coronary artery opening and ascending aorta were involved in the entrapment, so it was decided to perform Bentall’s operation. During the operation, a combination of direct perfusion of the coronary artery opening + continuous retrograde perfusion of the coronary venous sinus was used to protect the myocardium, and ice cap cerebral protection was used. At the same time, the aortic aneurysm wall was preserved intact, and after the end of the vascular anastomosis, an anastomosis between the aneurysm wall and the right auricle was performed to cleverly drain the anastomotic bleeding internally into the right atrium to achieve the effect of definite hemostasis, increase the success rate of the operation and shorten the operation time. The operation was very smooth, and the heart resumed beating naturally after the operation, and was successfully withdrawn from extracorporeal circulation and returned to the ICU ward of cardiothoracic surgery.  The aorta is the backbone of the arteries in the body, and consists of three layers of tissue that are close together, called the intima, mesima and epima. The so-called aortic coarctation is the tearing of the intima and middle layer of the aorta caused by various pathological factors, which gradually peel off to form a coarctation under the impact of blood flow, so that the aorta forms a “true lumen” and a “false lumen”, and blood flow enters the “false lumen” through the rupture of the intima. “If the dissection is too severe or the pressure in the “false lumen” is too high, the outer membrane of the aorta may expand in an aneurysmal manner, hence the name “aortic coarctation aneurysm”. Aortic coarctation is one of the more common and most complex and dangerous cardiovascular diseases, with a poor natural prognosis. According to statistical reports, the mortality rate is 20% in 15 minutes after the onset of the disease, and if not treated and managed, the mortality rate reaches 50% in the first 24 hours, and only 10% survives after one year. It is known as the “untimely bomb” in the human body because it is so dangerous. In the 1980s, the famous American women’s volleyball attacker Hyman died suddenly on the playing field because of aortic coarctation. Therefore, timely diagnosis and proper treatment are the keys to saving patients’ lives.  Aortic coarctation is divided into Standford type A and type B according to the extent of involvement. Type B is relatively mild, and most patients can be treated with interventional therapy. Type A is the most critical and has the highest mortality rate, and treatment is mainly surgical. The surgical method is extremely complicated because it requires different surgical methods in combination with specific involved parts, and also involves myocardial protection and brain protection, especially in the acute phase of entrapment where the vascular edema is fragile and the anastomosis is prone to bleeding, so the surgical mortality rate is extremely high, which is a real “high, precise and advanced” surgery. Because of this, not only surgeons in other municipal hospitals are discouraged, but also in some provincial hospitals are not able to carry out independently, and many patients die due to lack of timely surgical treatment or referral to large hospitals on the way.