Department of Emergency Medicine

UMEM Educational Pearls

Title: Complications of Acute Aortic Dissection

Category: Vascular

Keywords: Aortic Dissection (PubMed Search)

Posted: 6/20/2011 by Rob Rogers, MD (Updated: 12/26/2024)
Click here to contact Rob Rogers, MD

There are several complications of acute aortic dissection that emergency physicians must be familiar with.

These include:

  • Cardiac tamponade (most common cause of death)
  • Acute aortic regurgitation
  • Stroke
  • Free intrathoracic rupture
  • Malperfusion syndrome (kidney, spinal cord, bowel, extremity, etc.)

*Key Pearl: If a patient with suspected or confirmed acute aortic dissection suddenly arrests consider cardiac tamponade.

References



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