External Aortic Wrapping for Type A Dissection: SEWing but Not as We Know It

Abstract

In their fascinating article in this issue of The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Suematsu and colleagues1 present their experience of performing stepwise external wrapping (SEW) of the aorta for patients with type A aortic dissection deemed at excessive risk for conventional surgical repair. In this cohort of 43 patients with a mean age of 79 years, a median EuroSCORE (European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation) II of 63.9 the operative mortality was only 2.3%. Cerebral malperfusion was present in 65% of patients preoperatively; however, only 2 patients had persistent postoperative neurological disorders.