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Does Aortic Dissection cause kidney failure?
Cardiovascular and Renal InteractionsSurgical Considerationsaortic dissectionkidney failuresurgerykidneysrenal arteries

Does Aortic Dissection cause kidney failure?

This video discusses the impact aortic dissection can have on the kidneys and what type of treatment is available.

Transcript (auto-generated)

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

Does aortic dissection cause kidney failure and if so, why? So when blood enters what we call the false lumen by gaining entry between the intima and the adventitial layers, then if the pressure in the false lumen exceeds that in the true lumen, which is where the blood would normally flow, it can compress the branches of the aortic because it's effectively a blind-ending tunnel beside where the blood used to flow. So by compressing the renal arteries, it reduces the blood flow and oxygen delivery, and this means that after a certain period of time, the kidneys will become starved of oxygen or become ischemic, and this will cause them to fail. There are some other mechanisms by which it can happen. One is that the treatment of aortic dissection is to lower the blood pressure. Some patients who are used to having a very high blood pressure, which was normally undetected before the event, need a high blood pressure. So by lowering it in order to stop the compression of the true lumen, we actually underperfuse the kidneys. So this is something that I've seen on several occasions, which is difficult to avoid. In both of these situations where the kidney is being starved of oxygen for one reason or another, then surgery is usually indicated and we would normally do that as soon as possible.

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