Anterior mediastinal mass 4 years after type A aortic dissection

Alison Wallace; Danny Marcuzzi; Micheal Ko; David Latter

doi:10.1093/jscr/rjz010

Anterior mediastinal mass 4 years after type A aortic dissection

J Surg Case Rep. 2019 Jan 31;2019(1):rjz010. doi: 10.1093/jscr/rjz010. eCollection 2019 Jan.

Authors

Alison Wallace¹, Danny Marcuzzi², Micheal Ko³, David Latter⁴

Affiliations

¹ Division of Thoracic Surgery, Toronto General Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
² Department of Medical Imaging, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario.
³ Division of Thoracic Surgery, St. Joseph's Health Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁴ Division of Cardiac Surgery, Department of Surgery, St. Michael's Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Abstract

A 47-year-old male who previously underwent emergency surgery for type A aortic dissection presented to the emergency department 4 years later with acute chest pain radiating to his back and a significant drop in hemoglobin. Clinical presentation was concerning for aortic graft failure, but imaging revealed a large (6.0 × 3.2 × 12.8 cm³) soft tissue mediastinal mass that was not present 4 years before. Pathologic analysis revealed a rare thymic cyst with a hemorrhagic component. This was a challenging case from diagnostic and operative perspectives, involving the expertise of both cardiac and thoracic surgical teams.

Publication types

Case Reports