Outcome After Surgery for Acute Type A Aortic Dissection With or Without Primary Tear Resection.

Background: The outcome in patients after surgery for acute type A aortic dissection without replacement of the part of the aorta containing the primary tear is undefined.

Methods: Data of 1122 patients who underwent surgery for acute type A aortic dissection in 8 Nordic centers from January 2005 to December 2014 were retrospectively analyzed. The patients with primary tear location unfound, unknown, not confirmed, or not recorded (n = 243, 21.7%) were excluded from the analysis. The patients were divided into 2 groups according to whether the aortic reconstruction encompassed the portion of the primary tear (tear resected [TR] group, n = 730) or not (tear not resected [TNR] group, n = 149). The restricted mean survival time ratios adjusted for patient characteristics and surgical details between the groups were calculated for all-cause mortality and aortic reoperation-free survival. The median follow-up time was 2.57 (interquartile range, 0.53-5.30) years.

Results: For the majority of the patients in the TR group, the primary tear was located in the ascending aorta (83.6%). The reconstruction encompassed both the aortic root and the aortic arch in 7.4% in the TR group as compared with 0.7% in the TNR patients (P < .001). There were no significant differences in all-cause mortality (adjusted restricted mean survival time ratio, 1.01; 95% confidence interval, 0.92-1.12; P = .799) or reoperation-free survival (adjusted restricted mean survival time ratio, 0.98; 95% confidence interval, 0.95-1.02; P = .436) between the TR and TNR groups.

Conclusions: Primary tear resection alone does not determine the midterm outcome after surgery for acute type A aortic dissection.