Acute dissecting aortic aneurysm in an operational environment

Abstract

Acute dissecting thoracic aortic aneurysm is a rare cause of chest pain in young adults. Patients require prompt surgical treatment to reduce the high risk of early mortality. This report describes the case of a young Army officer who developed a dissecting aortic aneurysm in Mogadishu, Somalia, during Operation Continue Hope. Moving the patient from an isolated hostile country to a location where definitive surgical treatment could be quickly performed presented a significant challenge. Military physicians who may be deployed to isolated locations should be familiar with this unusual cause of chest pain and be prepared to rapidly evacuate patients to facilities that can treat them.