Nashville-based heart surgeon Dr. Grayson Wheatley shared his expert thoughts on the "unfortunate" case of a well-known celebrity, citing patterns that have emerged from treating similar patients with aortic dissections.
According to Wheatley, chest pain is often the first sign of a sudden tear or rip in the aorta, which can develop within a few heartbeats.
The pain associated with an aortic dissection is extreme, Dr. Wheatley said, describing it as so intense and sudden that it drops patients to their knees, causing them to fall to the ground and feel an intense tearing or ripping in their mid-upper back and/or chest.
Vascular surgeon Dr. Neel Mansukhani at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago explained why this condition can become life-threatening so quickly, noting that the aorta is the main blood vessel that comes off of the heart and runs like a pipe through the body.
The aorta itself has three layers, Dr. Mansukhani said, and a tear in the lining of the aorta causes those layers to separate, similar to paint peeling off a wall.
An enlarged aorta or damage to the vessel wall from cardiovascular disease can increase the likelihood of an aortic dissection, although age and high blood pressure remain the leading risk factors, Dr. Mansukhani said.
As people get older, blood vessels can weaken, and over time the constant pressure of blood flow can make the wall of the aorta more vulnerable to a dissection, Dr. Mansukhani shared.
Type A dissections are immediately life-threatening, as they are located right by the heart, Dr. Mansukhani said, and usually require surgery within 24 hours if a patient can tolerate it.
A type B dissection, located further down from the heart, can also be life-threatening but does not usually need immediate surgery, Dr. Mansukhani said.
Although an aortic dissection often strikes without warning, maintaining cardiovascular health and monitoring conditions such as high blood pressure can help lower the risk, Dr. Mansukhani advised.
