Painless aortic dissection presented with acute paraplegia

• Main Authors: Mahmoud Abdelnaby, Mohammed Abada, Alyaa Elsayed, Moustafa Dawood, Yehia Saleh, Abdallah Almaghraby
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2019-01-01
• Series: International Journal of the Cardiovascular Academy
• Subjects: Aortic dissection; computed tomographic aortography; echocardiography; painless paraplegia
• Online Access: http://www.ijcva.com/article.asp?issn=2405-8181;year=2019;volume=5;issue=1;spage=22;epage=24;aulast=Abdelnaby
• ISSN: 2405-8181; 2405-819X

Acute aortic dissection is considered a potentially fatal condition. Neurologic manifestations such as paraplegia are quite rare. We report a case of acute paraplegia in a hypertensive smoker chronic obstructive lung disease patient. Transthoracic echocardiography revealed a dissection flap starting at the aortic annulus and extending to the descending thoracic aorta. Computed tomographic aortography confirmed the diagnosis with a dissection flap extended from the aortic annulus to the entire distal aorta. The patient was referred to another specialized cardiothoracic center, but unfortunately, he died during the surgery.