Solitary Interruption of the Aortic Arch in an Elderly Patient

A 67-year-old man was hospitalized due to congestive heart failure. The blood pressure was 180/72mmHg in the right arm and 100/70mmHg in the right leg. Aortography revealed that the aortic arch was completely interrupted just distal to the origin of the left subclavian artery and the descending aorta was clearly outlined by contrast medium coming from well-developed collateral vessels. There was no congenital anomaly such as PDA or VSD except for the interruption of the aortic arch. The final diagnosis was solitary interruption of the aortic arch (type A). An extra-anatomical bypass using a 16mm woven Dacron graft was placed from the ascending aorta to the descending aorta at the level of the diaphragm with cardiopulmonary bypass. The pressure gradient across the interruption disappeared immediately after opening the graft. Although he had perioperative myocardial infarction in the area of the right coronary artery, he recovered fully and when discharged he was in NYHA class 1 condition.