Acute thoracic aortic syndromes.

Patients presenting with acute thoracic aortic syndromes require immediate evaluation and stabilization. Although emergent surgical intervention may not be warranted in all cases, managing clinicians should be cognizant of the fact that these diseases are dynamic and that they can rapidly degenerate yielding catastrophic consequences. While traditional surgical intervention has failed to reduce mortality rates in those requiring emergent intervention for descending thoracic aortic syndromes, evolving endovascular techniques hold promise and may prove to extend benefits beyond that which are currently generated with open graft aortic replacement.