SPONTANEOUS RESOLUTION LATE AFTER AORTIC DISSECTION

A 50-year-old man was operated on for acute type I (DeBakey classifica tion) aortic dissection. The supracoronary ascending aorta was replace d with an interposition graft. Postoperative computed tomography and a ngiography clearly revealed a double-barrelled aortic arch, left commo n carotid artery and descending thoracoabdominal aorta with contrast f illing of both true and false lumen starting from the distal anastomos is. The same finding was noted at 1 year follow-up with severe compres sion of the true lumen by the false lumen. At this time, anticoagulati on therapy was stopped. One year later: computed tomography showed spo ntaneous resolution of the dissection in the aortic arch, left common carotid artery and descending aorta over its full length. This was con firmed by angiography. This case reports illustrates that spontaneous resolution of a dissected descending aorta can occur late after surger y from type I dissection, but it remains very rare. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.