Healed Dissecting Aneurysm

Since Shennan (1934) published his well-known report on 300 cases of dissecting aneurysm the literature of this condition has become extensive, and Sailer (1942) stated that there were then some 500 published cases, of which 33 had been diagnosed before death. There is general agreement that in some 80 per cent of these cases death occurs within a few hours of an acute onset, and that most of those patients who survive the accident of dissection are cardiac cripples who usually die of internal hemorrhage or of cardiac failure within a year or two. There are, however, exceptions, such as Hall's (1926) patient, a boy aged 17, in whom the dissection occurred after a race, with such good recovery that he led a strenuous. athletic life for 15 years. The survival record seems to be held by Graham's (1886) patient, who lived for 30 years after the dissection.