A 75-year-old woman presented at a prior hospital with persistent cough and was treated conservatively for a thrombosed-type aortic dissection (Stanford A). One-year after discharge, follow-up computerized tomography revealed a DeBakey type II, chronic dissecting aortic aneurysm enlarged to 54 mm. She was referred to our hospital with slight edema in the face and extremities and chest radiography showed calcification around the heart. Computerized tomography performed at the prior hospital showed a large spherical mass in the anterior pericardium in addition to the aortic dissection. We therefore resected the mass immediately before a total aortic arch replacement. Surgery was successful and uneventful with patient discharge on postoperative day 21. The final differential diagnosis was idiopathic, localized, constrictive pericarditis.
Keywords: aorta and great vessels; cardiovascular pathology; constrictive pericarditis.
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