Aortic Aneurysm Case Study

The first medical case mentions was a man who a medical student was unable to find a blood pressure in one side. Overnight the patient was in operation room for repair of a tear in the aorta, the vessel that carrier blood out of the heart to the rest of the body. A difference in blood pressure between arms or the loss of blood pressure in one arm is an evidence of this kind of tear, known as a dissecting aortic aneurysm. He dies on the operating table. The next patient’s case was a middle-aged woman who comes to the hospital with a fever and difficulty breathing. When her fever spikes and her white blood cell count soars, the team gets a CT scan of the chest, looking for something in her lungs that would account for a worsening infection, but they find instead is an abscess on her spinal cord. She is rushed to surgery. The veins in her neck are distended and throbbing. The team immediately recognizes these as signs that the woman has bled into the sac around her heart a condition known as tamponade. These are
Even the condition known as dissecting aortic aneurysm is s relatively uncommon. The condition most frequently occurs in men in their 60s and 70s. An aortic dissection is a serious condition in which the inner layer of the aorta, the large blood vessel branching off the heart, tears. Blood surges through the tear, causing the inner and middle layers of the aorta to separate (dissect). If the blood-filled channel ruptures through the outside aortic wall, aortic dissection is often fatal. The other condition known as tamponade is a clinical syndrome caused by the accumulation of fluid in the pericardial space, resulting in reduced ventricular filling and subsequent hemodynamic compromise. The condition is a medical emergency, the complications of which include pulmonary edema, shock, and