Traumatic aortic transection repair with distal perfusion — single center experience

Blunt aortic injury is associated with significant mortality. A large number of patients loose their lives before reaching the hospital, those who survive half die within a day. Isthmus is the commonest site of aortic injury. Aortic injury is usually associated with other injuries of the body hence a multidisciplinary approach is required. For aortic transection the treatment options have evolved from proximal and distal aortic cross clamping and repair with distal perfusion technique using shunt or partial heart bypass (extracorporeal circulation) to endovascular stenting depending upon the available facilities and expertise. Distal perfusion technique helps in avoiding paraplegia. We present our institutional experience of polytrauma associated with blunt aortic injuries managed with open surgical repair with distal perfusion using cardiopulmonary bypass.