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(Circulation. 1997;95:1972-1973.)
© 1997 American Heart Association, Inc.

Articles

Mycotic Aneurysm of the Descending Thoracic Aorta

Donald Oxorn, MD, CM, FRCPC; Stuart Bell, MB, BS, FRCPC

From the Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Correspondence to Donald Oxorn, MD, CM, FRCPC, Department of Anaesthesia, Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M4N 3M5, Canada.

	Introduction

Top Introduction

 
A 58-year-old man presented to hospital with atypical chest pain, chills, and fever. Although blood cultures grew Staphylococcus aureus, no primary source of infection was evident. Transesophageal echocardiography revealed false aneurysm formation in the lower thoracic aorta 38 cm from the incisors (A). The false aneurysm contained spontaneous echo contrast indicative of low flow. Extravasated blood surrounded the aorta. Angiography (B, arrow), contrast-enhanced CT (C, arrow), and three-dimensional reconstructed CT (D, arrow) confirmed the presence of an aneurysm arising from the posteromedial aspect of the aorta at the level of the 10th thoracic vertebra. The patient was treated with intravenous cloxacillin and taken to the operating room, where a leaking mycotic aneurysm was resected and a synthetic graft interposed. Intraoperative cultures of the aneurysm grew Staphylococcus aureus. The patient made an uneventful recovery and was left with no long-term sequelae.

View larger version (178K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Figure 1.

	Footnotes

 
The editor of Images in Cardiovascular Medicine is Hugh A. McAllister, Jr, MD, Chief, Department of Pathology, St Luke's Episcopal Hospital and Texas Heart Institute, and Clinical Professor of Pathology, University of Texas Medical School and Baylor College of Medicine.

Circulation encourages readers to submit cardiovascular images to Dr Hugh A. McAllister, Jr, St Luke's Episcopal Hospital and Texas Heart Institute, 6720 Bertner, MC4-265, Houston, TX 77030.

This Article Extract Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Oxorn, D. Articles by Bell, S. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Oxorn, D. Articles by Bell, S.