In-hospital major adverse outcomes of acute Type A aortic dissection

OBJECTIVES: Acute Type A aortic dissection exhibits poor in-hospital outcomes after emergency surgery. Evaluation of risk predictors for in-hospital major adverse outcomes (MAO) is key to reducing the mortality rate and improving the quality of care. METHODS: We enrolled 70 patients who presented with postoperative MAO and 195 patients who recovered well. Through univariate and multivariate analyses, clinical characteristics were compared between the patients in the 2 groups. RESULTS: In-hospital mortality was 6.4% in this series. The patients in the MAO group were older and had a higher frequency of coronary artery involvement by dissection (60.0% vs 21.0%) (P < 0.05). Preoperatively, when compared to the group of patients without MAO, the patients in the MAO group were more likely to have a neurological deficit (18.6% vs 9.7%) and, to a certain extent, lower limb symptoms encompassing visceral and renal malperfusion (20.0% vs 8.2%) (P < 0.05). Compared to patients with MAO, patients without MAO experienced longer duration from initial onset of symptoms to surgery and had an ascending aorta with a larger diameter. In patients with MAO, the average durations of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), cardiac arrest and hypothermic circulatory arrest were much longer than those in patients with no MAO (all P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that in-hospital adverse outcomes were associated with older age [odds ratio (OR) = 1.047 (1.008-1.087), P < 0.05], presentation of lower limb symptoms prior to surgery [OR = 2.905 (1.109-7.608), P < 0.05] and long CPB duration [OR = 1.011 (1.005-1.018), P < 0.01]. When patients with acute Type A aortic dissection experienced a duration from symptom onset to surgery [OR = 0.993 (0.987-0.999), P < 0.05] or had an ascending aorta with a large diameter [OR = 0.942 (0.892-0.995), P < 0.05], the number of postoperative adverse events decreased significantly. CONCLUSIONS: At a centre that has a large caseload, where practitioners can become proficient through experience as well as training, good outcomes can be dependably produced in patients with acute Type A aortic dissection and without malperfusion syndromes. For patients presenting with these risk features, MAO need to be anticipated, and the incidence of a composite end point of major adverse events remains unsatisfactory.