Acute Aortic Occlusion Due to False-Lumen Expansion After Repair of Abdominal Aortic Rupture in Type B Acute Aortic Dissection

We describe a patient with aortic occlusion due to false-lumen expansion after repair of abdominal aortic rupture in acute type B aortic dissection. A 70-year-old man presented to a nearby hospital with severe lower back pain, and was subsequently referred to our hospital with a diagnosis of abdominal aortic rupture. Computed tomography scanning on admission revealed type B aortic dissection with concomitant false-lumen rupture at the level of pre-existing infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm. The patient underwent abdominal aortic replacement with the true lumen reconstructed using a bifurcated knitted Dacron graft. On postoperative day 2, the patient developed severe lower body ischemia. Computed tomography scanning revealed complete true-lumen occlusion at the renal artery level because of false-lumen expansion. The patient underwent open fenestration by opening the bulging flap with a transverse graftotomy distal to the proximal graft anastomosis. After fenestration, the patient developed severe metabolic complications (i.e., myonephropathic-metabolic syndrome) and died a day later of cardiac arrest resulting from hyperkalemia. Abdominal aortic replacement with true-lumen reconstruction in patients with abdominal aortic rupture in type B acute aortic dissection could also lead to acute aortic occlusion due to re-dissection or true-lumen compromise accompanying retrograde propagation of false-lumen thrombosis. This lethal sequela after true-lumen reconstruction might be prevented by an adjuvant procedure such as concomitant fenestration.