Fatal traumatic rupture of an aortic aneurysm of the sinus of Valsalva: anautopsy case

This report describes an autopsy case of a rare type of aortic sinus of Val salva aneurysm, which caused fatal rupture from a blunt chest impact. A 51- year-old male was hit in the chest with a fist, lost consciousness after ab out 15 min and died after approximately 7 h. The postmortem examination rev ealed a large saccular aneurysm of the right coronary sinus bulging on the right atrium. which had a full laceration causing pericardial hematoma (car diac tamponade). A related chest wall injury was observed in the right oute r mammary region. A rare type of bulging onto the right atrium and subseque nt sclerosis of the right coronary artery appeared to have greatly contribu ted to the fatal rupture. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.