Chest trauma is classified as blunt or penetrating and the former is the most cause of thoracic injuries with an incidence of 90%. The prevalence of thoracic injuries caused by falls from heights is 10–20%. Traumatic aortic rupture is a very rare condition with an average of 2.2 cases per center per year reported in North America. Thoracic great vessel related to blunt trauma is relatively rare with an incidence of less than 5% [5–8].
The mechanism is torsion and shearing forces against the aorta at levels of relative immobility, mainly the ligamentum arteriosum with an incidence of 90–95%. The isthmus, a part of relatively mobile thoracic aorta joining the fixed arch and the insertion of the ligamentum arteriosus, becomes the most commonly injured site in deceleration accident, with an involved incidence of 80% and 90–95% in the pathological and clinical series, respectively [1–8].
The traumatic aortic injury (TAI), a lesion extending from the intima to the adventitia, usually occurs in deceleration accidents, such as motor vehicle collisions, falls from height or crush injuries, with an immediately high mortality rate of 80–90% during the first phase, so the victims should be taken to hospital as quickly as possible. Survival patients in the initial phase of TAI have a higher successful outcome under endovascular repair comparative of conventional open surgical repair [1–8]. The predictors of TAI include age older than 50 years, being unrestrained, systolic blood pressure of less than 90 mmHg, thoracic injury, abdominopelvic injury with fractures of the lumbar spine and pelvis, long bone fractures, and major head injury [7].
Widening of mediastinum greater than 8 cm and/or 25% of the width of the thorax, loss of aortico-pulmonary window, tracheal deviation to the right, nasogastric shifting to right, left apical cap, depression of the left main stem bronchus, left-sided hemothorax, or scapular, sternal, thoracic spine or multiple rib fractures on plain radiography is suggestive of aortic rupture [5, 7, 9]. Fractures of the first and second ribs are clearly markers of severe blunt force trauma [7, 9].
Multidetector CTA is the diagnostic modality for the initial evaluation and accurate diagnosis of TAI, with a sensitivity of 98% and a specificity of 100% [6, 7]. CTA can offer a non-invasive assessment of the anatomical characteristics of TAI with rapid deceleration force or clinical suspicion. A prompt diagnosis of traumatic TAPA through a 3-dimensional CTA of aorta and emergency repair with stent graft are mandatory to rescue the life-threatening condition. An endovascular repair is a trend with greater and greater acceptance for TAI because of lower invasivity, avoiding thoracotomy and use of heparin, lower morbidity and mortality compared with conventional open surgical repair [1–10].
Pseudoaneurysm formation, intraluminal filling defect, and intimal irregularity are common findings in vessel wall injury [7]. Direct signs of TAI include active contrast medium extravasation, an intimal flap, TAPA, an increase in size of the periaortic hematoma, aortic contour/diameter variation, contained rupture, intraluminal mural thrombus, abnormal aortic contour, recurrent hemothorax and abrupt change in aortic caliber (pseudocoarctation) [1–3, 6, 7]. Indirect CT signs are indistinctness of mediastinal flat planes, periaortic haematoma and mediastinal haematoma [2, 3, 6].
Short-term complications of endovascular repair for TAI include paraplegia, stroke, puncture-site complications, device collapse, endoleak and recurrent laryngeal nerve damage. However, very little data are available concerning long-term outcomes and complications [5, 7]. We highlight that CTA and emergency endovascular repair of stent-graft for TAI with TAPA in polytrauma patients are recommended.