A 67-year-old man suffered sudden chest pain. Computed tomography with contrast medium revealed dissection from the ascending aorta to the bilateral iliac arteries and hematoma around the left external iliac artery. Type A acute aortic dissection complicated with rupture of the left external iliac artery was diagnosed. Urgent endovascular repair (stent-graft implantation) was first performed for the arterial rupture more critical than the aortic dissection. On the next day after satisfactory hemostasis and hemodynamical stabilization, semi-urgent ascending aortic replacement was achieved, and the patient survived. Acute aortic dissection complicated with rupture of the aortic branch was extremely rare, and only 5 cases have been reported in the English literature.

We report a 49-year-old man with retrograde type A acute aortic dissection with patent false lumen in the ascending aorta. The patient successfully underwent urgent thoracic endovascular repair (TEVAR) to cover the primary entry on the onset (admission) day. The false lumen from the ascending aorta to the proximal descending thoracic aorta was completely thrombosed, gradually shrank, and finally disappeared. In conclusion, TEVAR for retrograde type A acute aortic dissection with a patent ascending false lumen is far less invasive than aortic replacement (with cardiopulmonary bypass, cardiac arrest, and circulatory arrest) and may be useful in selected patients with a primary entry located at least approximately 2 cm distal to the origin of the left subclavian artery.