DOI: 10.36347/sasjm

Pages: 87-92

We retrospectively investigated the outcomes of patients with acute non-traumatic aortic disease (ANAD) who were transported to the emergency department (ED). From April 2012 to March 2016, we performed a retrospective medical chart review of patients who had been diagnosed with ANAD based on computed tomography (CT) and blood examination findings in the ED of Numazu City Hospital. The subjects were divided into two groups: the Survival group, which included patients who survived after treatments; and the Fatal group, which included patients who died. The Survival and Fatal groups included 29 patients and 41 patients, respectively. An altered level of consciousness was the most frequent initial complaint, followed by back pain. The age, percentage of female patients, and the incidence of consciousness disturbance, cardiac arrest, and cardiac tamponade in the Survival group were significantly lower in comparison to the Fatal group. In contrast the incidence of back pain in the Survival group was significantly higher than that in the Fatal group. There rate at which cases were misdiagnosed did not differ between the two groups to a statistically significant extent (Survival, 58.6 %; Fatal, 58.5 %). The present study demonstrated that among patients who were diagnosed with ANAD at the ED, advanced age, female gender, unconsciousness, the absence of back pain, cardiac tamponade and cardiac arrest were risk factors for a fatal outcome. However, the outcome was not affected by a delayed diagnosis