Can Antipsychotics and Antidepressants Affect the Formation or Chronicization of Aortic Dissections?

Abstract

Acute Stanford type-A aortic dissections (STAAD) are life-threatening diseases which require emergency surgery to eliminate risks of aortic rupture, severe aortic valve insufficiency, pericardial tamponade and cerebral and/or coronary malperfusion. Only a small subset of patients go unnoticed and become chronic with unclear mechanism. These patients are usually diagnosed thru late symptoms or incidentally. Surgical techniques requiring cardiopulmonary bypass and sometimes deep hypothermia and circulatory arrest are first-line treatments with considerable mortality and complications. Herein, an incidentally diagnosed chronic STAAD patient who was receiving antipsychotic and antidepressant treatment and successfully repaired with total aortic arch replacement was presented.