Aortic dissection during pregnancy.

Aortic dissection occurred in a nineteen year old woman during the thirty seventh week of pregnancy. Immediate elective delivery of a normal baby by caesarean section was followed by aortic root replacement 48 hours later. It was decided not to proceed immediately to operation on the aortic root because it was believed that the anticoagulation necessary for cardiopulmonary bypass might provoke dangerous haemorrhage from the raw placental site.