A 34-year-old male with chest pain and shock was admitted as an emergency case to our unit. Ruptured acute aortic dissection with annuloaorticectasia was suspected and emergency operation was performed. Acute aortic dissection was localized at the aortic root. The right coronary orifice was involved with the dissection, and an intimal tear was found just above it. Aortic root replacement with composite graft was performed as follows. The aortic wall around the coronary orifice was incised in a circular manner like a button and the dissection of the aorta around the coronary orifice was repaired. Dacron tubes with xenopericardial skirts were interposed between the coronary orifices and the composite graft. Wrapping of the composite graft was completed using the aortic wall and xenopericardium. The postoperative course was uneventful with only slight bleeding. Our procedure is useful for acute aortic dissection around the coronary orifice.

A 48-year-old man complained of hemoptysis. Chest CT scan showed a large cardiac tumor invading the atrial septum and both atria, as well as multiple small nodules in bilateral lung fields. They were diagnosed as a malignant cardiac tumor and its lung metastases. As the tumor in the left atrium was extremely massive, operation was performed to prevent sudden death due to occlusion and to make a pathological diagnosis. The cardiac tumor invaded the atrial septum from the right atrium and occupied the left atrium. After the cardiac tumor was completely removed, the bilateral atria, the atrial septum, SVC, IVC and the right lower pulmonary vein were reconstructed with prosthetic pericardial patches. The tumor was angiosarcoma. During the postoperative period, Interleukin-2 was used as the treatment for angiosarcoma. Unfortunately the patient died of lung failure on the 107th postoperative day. Though IL-2 could not stop the development of lung metastasis in this case, the effectiveness of radiotherapy or IL-2 for angiosarcoma has recently been reported. In such cases where complete resection of the primary cardiac lesion is possible, postoperative radiotherapy or IL-2 administration seems to be effective for cardiac sarcoma.

Ruptured type B acute aortic dissection (AAD) is a life-threatening condition, in which surgical treatment most often yields unsatisfactory results. We report a case of a ruptured type B AAD in a 67-year-old man detected on computed tomography that required a partial aortic arch replacement with reconstruction of the left subclavian artery with adjunct deep hypothermic circulatory arrest (DHCA). Although the patient had a postoperative stroke, he recovered markedly with rehabilitation. DHCA and open proximal anastomosis are useful for the surgical treatment of type B AAD, however, an elaborate strategy to prevent an intraoperative cerebral embolism is especially important.