Dissecting Aneurysm of the Aorta: A Presentation of Fifteen Cases and a Review of the Recent Literature

DISSECTING aneurysm of the aorta was first described by Nicholls * in 1761. Laennec2 in 1819 was the first to employ the term dissecting aneurysm and Swaine 3 in 1856 was the first to make a correct ante-mortem diagnosis. In 1863 Peacock4 published his review of 80 cases and in 1933 Shennan 5 published his monograph of 300 cases, to which he added 17 of his own. Since then there have been many excellent descriptions of the various aspects of this disease, among them being the reports of Logue,6