The Role of Surgical and Endovascular Repair of Blunt Traumatic Aortic Injury in the Modern Era: A Single-Center Experience

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of chest x-ray (CXR) in blunt traumatic aortic injury (BTAI) as a primaryimaging tool in trauma patients.Methods: We retrospectively reviewed our hospital records for blunt thoracic aortic injury patients who had atherapeutic intervention from January 2015 to February 2021. Patients’ characteristics, initial chest x-rays, andcomputed tomography (CT) scan were extracted and re-evaluated.Results: Eighteen patients matched the criteria of our research. The mean age and the injury severity score(ISS) was 29.8±11.2 and 38.4±14.4, respectively. Seven patients (38.9%) underwent thoracic endovascularaortic repair (TEVAR), and 11 (61.1%) had open surgery. The TEVAR group had significantly lower meanintensive care unit stay days (6.6±3.9 vs. 10.8±6.9 in open aortic repair (OAR), p<0.05). The percentile ofpatients requiring blood transfusion was significantly lower in the TEVAR group (57% vs. 100% in OAR,p<0.05). Mediastinal widening (66.7%) was the most common finding during the evaluation of initial chestx-rays. Interestingly, 22.2% of the initial x-rays were not remarkable for BTAI.Conclusion: TEVAR is an advantageous choice in the management of BTAI. However, open aortic repair is theoptimal decision in certain situations. It is suggested that the Interventional management of the BTAI must beperformed by experienced vascular surgeons in a medical center capable of both OAR and TEVAR.

Keywords

• surgical
• endovascular
• repair
• blunt traumatic aortic injury (btai)
• thoracic endovascular aortic repair (tevar)
• trauma