Aortic intramural haematoma: current therapeutic strategy.

O ver the last 10 years, intramural haematoma (IMH) of the aorta has become increasingly recognised as a pathological entity distinct from aortic dissection. Despite this enhanced appreciation and the resultant increase in the frequency of its diagnostic identification, a consensus regarding optimal management strategies for this disease has not been established. This is due in part to our incomplete understanding of a condition only first clearly established in the mid 1980s. As opposed to aortic dissection where we have developed a relatively comprehensive knowledge of the more common constellations of anatomic involvement and their clinical outcomes, with IMH we are now only at a stage of correlating insights gleaned from clinical series contributed by investigators from around the world. Many of theses observations have been presented in the prior discussions.