SummaryTo evaluate the impact of presurgical mild acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) on surgical mortality in patients undergoing surgical repair of acute type A aortic dissection by means of deep hypothermic circulatory arrest (DHCA) in a single-center, retrospective study.From January 2011 to December 2015, 333 eligible patients were divided into either a mild-ARDS group (n = 136) or a no-ARDS group (n = 197). The definition of mild ARDS referred to the recent revision of ARDS definition (Berlin criteria). The surgical mortality and major postoperative morbidity were investigated and analyzed.A total of 136 patients developed presurgical mild ARDS, with an incidence of 40.8%. No significant difference emerged between the 2 groups in major postoperative morbidity except for pulmonary complications. Multivariate logistic regression displayed that the risk of postoperative pulmonary complications in patients with presurgical mild ARDS was 4.25 times that in patients without presurgical ARDS (OR = 4.25, 95% CI 2.05-7.72). Twenty-four patients died after surgery, with significantly higher surgical mortality in the mild-ARDS group compared with the no-ARDS group (12.5% versus 3.6%, P = 0.002). Kaplan-Meier curves showed a poor surgical survival in the mild-ARDS group (χ 2 =12.958, Log-Rank P < 0.001). And Cox regression revealed the hazard ratio for surgical mortality in the mild-ARDS group compared with the no-ARDS group was 2.52 (95%CI 1.41-5.32, P = 0.016).Presurgical mild ARDS increased postoperative respiratory morbidity, and then increased surgical mortality after surgical repair of acute type A aortic dissection by means of DHCA (Int Heart J 2017; 58: 739-745) Key words: Mild acute respiratory distress syndrome, Acute type A aortic dissection, Deep hypothermic circulatory arrest, Surgical mortality, Morbidity A cute lung injury, which was used to describe mild acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) previously, is one of most common presurgical complications following acute aortic dissection, with a prevalence of 30-45%. [1][2][3][4] Although it is recognized that activation of the inflammatory system caused by aortic injury due to acute aortic dissection may play a crucial role in the occurrence and development of acute lung injury, 1,5,6) the specific mechanism is still unclear. Acute lung injury or even severe ARDS is considered to be systemic complications of acute aortic dissection rather than a simple pulmonary disease.
7)An overwhelming majority of previous studies focused on evaluating risk factors for presurgical mild ARDS following acute aortic dissection, identifying the predictors for hypoxemia following surgical repair of acute type A aortic dissection by means of deep hypothermic circulatory arrest (DHCA), and exploring the pathogenesis of postoperative hypoxemia. However, few reports focused on evaluating the impacts of presurgical mild ARDS on surgical mortality and major postoperative morbidity in patients undergoing surgical repair of acute type A aortic dissection by means of DHC...