Although paraplegia following descending thoracic and thoracoabdominal aortic repair is well known, paraplegia after repairing ascending aorta has been rarely reported. We describe a very rare case of postoperative paraparesis after repairing type A acute aortic dissection. A 64-year-old man with type A acute aortic dissection whose aortic false lumen was all thrombosed, was treated with rest and his blood pressure was strictly controlled. The follow-up computed tomography revealed that blood flow in the false lumen was recognized in the ascending aorta 8 days after admission. At the same time the diameter of the ascending aorta was enlarged. We performed emergency ascending aortic replacement under deep-hypothermic circulatory arrest and selective cerebral perfusion. We recognized that he showed paraparesis 4 days after operation and magnetic resonance imaging showed high signals in the spinal cord, which indicated spinal cord infarction. He received rehabilitation for 5 months, and fully recovered neurologically. The causes of paraplegia after repairing type A acute aortic dissection have not been clarified. In our case, we presumed the causes included over 60 min circulatory arrest which invoked low spinal perfusion, the anterior spinal artery was thrombosed by selective cerebral perfusion, some intercostals arteries were occluded by postoperative change of the descending aortic false lumen pressure. This case is very rare, and we had to take all possible precautions.

A 72-year-old man presented with chief complaints of back pain. Medical workup discovered infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) with Stanford type B acute aortic dissection on CT. The dissection originated distal to the left subclavian artery and extended to the right commom iliac artery. All visceral arteries branched from the false lumen. The maximum diameter of the thoracic aneurysm was 4.8cm and that of the abdominal aneurysm was 6.5cm. Multiple renal infarcts were noted and the right kidney function was decreased. Initial surgery was performed 3 months after presentation using a graft technique. Advanced atherosclerosis and dissection were noted in the aneurysm making the arterial wall quite vulnerable. Hemorrhage was extensive and hemostasis difficult in the defective arterial wall. The patient became unstable so the aneurysm was closed and the surgical procedure was changed to right axillo-bifemoral bypass rather than the original surgical plan of anatomic reconstruction of the AAA. The patient tolerated the procedure well. We report a rare case of acute aortic dissection which extended through the AAA.

Complete revascularization of the coronary artery was performed in a 73-year-old man who had severe stenosis of the bilateral subclavian and left vertebral arteries and severe calcification of the ascending aorta. At first, we performed CABG (coronary artery bypass grafting) on the LAD (left anterior descending artery) and the RCA (right coronary artery) without cardiopulmonary bypass. In-situ GEA (gastroepiploic artery) was anastomosed to the LAD and SVG (saphenous vein graft) was anastomosed to 4 PD (4 posterior descending artery) of the RCA. The right brachiocephalic artery was selected as the site of the proximal anastomosis of the SVG. A Palmaz-Schatz stent was then held in place in the LCX (left circumflex artery) postoperatively. The combination of CABG without cardiopulmonary bypass and PTCA was a safe method for preventing cerebrovascular complications in a patient with a severely calcified artery.