Surgical treatment of non-penetrating injury to the aorta.

During a 17-year period, eight cases of blunt traumatic injury to the aorta were surgically treated at our hospital. The locations of the lesions were the descending thoracic aorta in four cases, abdominal aorta in two cases, and traumatic DeBakey type IIIb dissection in two cases. Surgical repairs were carried out during the acute or subacute period in four cases and others were electively treated during the chronic period. One patient suffering from acute traumatic dissection of the aorta died of acute renal failure following acute ischemia in the lower extremities 10 days after surgery. Accordingly, the overall mortality rate was 12.5% in this series. We believe that elective operations should be carefully considered if they are possible.