Aortic aneurysm

[Eydawn]

Aortic tears secondary to trauma are tricky buggers and no mistake.

One of my friends is an extraordinary lucky girl... survived an aortic tear. Her truck vs. a mini cooper. She did end up losing the lower part of her right leg due to venous clotting post-op... but she's alive!

That said... there isn't a whole lot you can do to help an aortic tear. I don't think there's any one action that will help save that particular class of patient. A lot of it is definitely luck. Or grace. Who knows?

Wendy

CO EMT-B

[Chief1C]

Have you ever gotten a feeling that you never want to drive again, after reading or hearing stories like that?

[WelshMedic]

Hi 4c,

I liked your post about the AAA you worked on, it was a classic example of a burst AAA. I can tell you did your best for him, but unfortunately the outcome had been decided the minute it burst.

The best thing you can do is a recognize a dissecting AAA in an earlier stage and get them to specialist care as soon as possible. Here are some of the tell-tale signs (sorry, if I'm preaching to the already converted, I have no idea what level of provider you are):

Gender: occurs in far more males

Age: tends to be the "older" members of our community

PMH: more often than not there is a history of hypertension.

Presentation: anxious, unable to find a comfortable sitting position, diaphoretic, sub-sternal of abdominal pain that radiates to the back area (this is a particularly tell-tale sign), need to defecate and finally, in certain types of aneurysma's you will record a marked difference in BP in both arms. Sometimes is a lack of femoral artery pulses on one side a sign, but this can be difficult to diagnose and is certainly not conclusive.

Treatment: Hell for leather to the nearest center capable of dealing with the problem.

Have a good day all,

WM

[Doczilla]

As far as traumatic aortic rupture goes, nothing done in the prehospital environment will help, other than rapid transport. Position doesn't matter. Movement doesn't matter. Give oxygen, and if able, obtain IV access and treat for shock. If your patient crashes, you can consider pericardiocentesis, though it's unlikely to be helpful.

'zilla