ABSTRACT
Traumatic aortic injury (TAI) is a lesion extending from the intima to the adventitia, occurring
as a result of trauma. The first annotation of TAI was in 1557 by Vesalius, who described a
patient with an aortic rupture after a fall from a horse. In 1923 Dshanelidze in Russia reported
the first successful repair of TAI in a penetrating lesion of ascending aorta, followed in the 1950s
by the surgical reports of Gerbode et al., Klassen et al., Passaro and Pace (1). The era of high-
speed motor vehicles has brought with it an increased incidence of TAI. The more sophisticated
prehospital care and the proliferation of rapid transport for patients have resulted in an average
increase in the number of patients treated. Several recent investigations have shown that TAI
occurs in 10% to 30% of adults sustaining fatal blunt trauma. TAI therefore represents one of the
most common causes of death at the scene of vehicular accidents, accounting for 8000 victims/yr
in the United States. (2-8).
