{"id":5729,"date":"2026-10-02T15:16:32","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T13:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cvja.co.za\/journal\/?p=5729"},"modified":"2026-10-02T15:16:32","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T13:16:32","slug":"cvja-2026-040","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cvja.co.za\/journal\/cvja-2026-040\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservative management of subdiaphragmatic aortic trauma"},"content":{"rendered":"    <div id=\"article\">                                                                                                                        \r\n        <div id=\"title-container\">                                                                                                    \r\n        <div id=\"authors-title\">                                                                                                            \r\n        <!--Aurthors under Title-->                                                                                                            \r\n            \r\nH\u00e8la Ben Jma\u00e2, Zied Ben Ayed, Faten Dhouib, Mohamed Seddik, Hafedh Daly, Ahmed Ben Ayed, Rahma Kallel, Imed Frikha\r\n<\/div>        \r\n<\/div>                                                                                                                            \r\n            <div id=\"copyright\">\r\n        <strong>Copyright:<\/strong> Clinics Cardive Publishing (Pty) Ltd. publisher\r\n        of Cardiovascular Journal of Africa.<\/div>\r\n    <div style=\"clear: both;\"><\/div>                                                                                                                                \r\n        <div id=\"article-abstract\">                                                                                                            \r\n            <div id=\"abstract-title\">                                                                                                        \r\n                    Abstract                                                                                                                \r\n                <\/div>                                                                                                                        \r\n                                                                                                                                \r\n            <div id=\"abstract-content\">                                                                                                        \r\n            <!--Content of Abstract Article-->                                                                                                \r\n            <!--<strong>\"Abstract titles\":<\/strong>-->                                                                                        \r\n            <!--<br\/> at the end of each section!!-->                                                                                        \r\n                                                                                                                                                    \r\n\r\nTraumatic rupture of the thoracic aorta is most frequently caused by rapid deceleration during road traffic accidents, with the aortic isthmus representing the most common site of injury. Isolated post-traumatic distal aortic haematomas remain rare. Their clinical management is highly challenging, particularly when the regional aortic diameter is narrow. We report the case of a 26-year-old man who survived a violent vehicle collision involving a two-vehicle impact two-vehicle impact. Upon presentation, he was haemodynamically and neurologically stable. A thoraco-abdominal computed tomography scan revealed an intramural haematoma in the subdiaphragmatic aorta, along with a hepatic contusion, a splenic contusion, and a spinal fracture. Post-processing image analysis performed on a workstation determined the aortic diameters above and below the lesion to be 16.3 mm and 14.7 mm, respectively. The patient was successfully managed conservatively with structured clinical and radiological follow-up.\r\n\r\n                                                                                                        \r\n\r\n                                                                                                                                                \r\n            <\/div>                                                                                                                            \r\n        <\/div>                                                                                                                                    \r\n                                                                                                                                        \r\n                                                                                                                                                \r\n        <div id=\"keywords\">                                                                                                                    \r\n                                                                                                                                            \r\n            <strong>Keywords:<\/strong>                                                                                                        \r\n                                                                                                                                            \r\n            <strong>non-penetrating trauma, subdiaphragmatic aortic haematoma, paraplegia, conservative management<\/strong>                                                                                                                                                                                                                    \r\n                                                                                                                                                \r\n        <\/div>                                                                                                                                    \r\n                                                                                                                                                \r\n    <div id=\"publish-info\">                                                                                                                    \r\n                                                                                                                                \r\n    <strong>Submitted:<\/strong> May 16, 2026; <!--Month day, year; -->    \r\n    <strong>Accepted:<\/strong> June 11, 2026; <!--Month day, year; -->                                                                            \r\n    <strong>Published:<\/strong> October 2, 2026<!--Month day, year; -->                                                                                                                            <br \/>                                                            \r\n        <em>Cardiovasc J Afr 2025; <b>37<\/b>: 412-415<!--pg no. till pg no. \"eg. 4-7\"--><\/em>\r\n        <br \/><strong>Volume 37, Issue 4<\/strong> <br \/>                                                                            \r\n        <\/div>                                                                                                                            \r\n                                                                                                                                        \r\n    <div id=\"DOI\">                                                                                                                    \r\n            DOI Citation Reference: dx.doi.org\/10.5830\/CVJA-2026-040<!--DOI number-->                                                                \r\n        <\/div>                                                                                                                            \r\n                \r\n                <div id=\"author-affiliation\">                                                                                                \r\n\r\n\r\n<strong>Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Habib Bourguiba University Hospital, Sfax, Tunisia\r\n\r\n<\/strong>    <br \/>                                                                            \r\nH\u00e8la Ben Jma\u00e2<br \/>\r\nZied Ben Ayed<br \/>\r\nMohamed Seddik<br \/>\r\nHafedh Daly<br \/>\r\nImed Frikha\r\n<br \/><br \/>    \r\n\r\n<strong>Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Military University Hospital, Sfax, Tunisia\r\n\r\n<\/strong>    <br \/>                                                                            \r\nFaten Dhouib\r\n\r\n<br \/><br \/>    \r\n\r\n<strong>Department of Thoracic Surgery, Habib Bourguiba University Hospital, Sfax, Tunisia\r\n\r\n<\/strong>    <br \/>                                                                            \r\nAhmed Ben Ayed\r\n<br \/><br \/>    \r\n\r\n<strong>Department of Cardiology, Gabes University Hospital, Gabes, Tunisia\r\n\r\n<\/strong>    <br \/>                                                                            \r\nRahma Kallel\r\n<br \/><br \/>     \r\n\r\n\r\n                [soshsc hide=\"logged\"]\r\n                \r\n                <strong>You need to be <a style=\"color: #c80c44;\" href=\"https:\/\/cvja.co.za\/journal\/member-login\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">logged in to view and download<\/a> the full text PDF version. <a style=\"color: #c80c44;\" href=\"https:\/\/cvja.co.za\/journal\/register\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Register for a free account?<\/a><\/strong> <br \/><br \/>[\/soshsc]\r\n                \r\n                \r\n                \r\n                <\/div>\r\n    \r\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Traumatic rupture of the thoracic aorta is most frequently caused by rapid deceleration during road traffic accidents, with the aortic isthmus representing the most common site of injury. Isolated post-traumatic distal aortic haematomas remain rare. Their clinical management is highly challenging, particularly when the regional aortic diameter is narrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cardiovascular-topics","category-volume-37-issue-4"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Conservative management of subdiaphragmatic aortic trauma - Cardiovascular Journal of Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Traumatic rupture of the thoracic aorta is most frequently caused by rapid deceleration during road traffic accidents, with the aortic isthmus representing the most common site of injury. Isolated post-traumatic distal aortic haematomas remain rare. Their clinical management is highly challenging, particularly when the regional aortic diameter is narrow.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cvja.co.za\/journal\/cvja-2026-040\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Conservative management of subdiaphragmatic aortic trauma - Cardiovascular Journal of Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Traumatic rupture of the thoracic aorta is most frequently caused by rapid deceleration during road traffic accidents, with the aortic isthmus representing the most common site of injury. Isolated post-traumatic distal aortic haematomas remain rare. Their clinical management is highly challenging, particularly when the regional aortic diameter is narrow.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cvja.co.za\/journal\/cvja-2026-040\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cardiovascular Journal of Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-10-02T13:16:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jaco Moolman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jaco Moolman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cvja.co.za\/journal\/cvja-2026-040\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cvja.co.za\/journal\/cvja-2026-040\/\",\"name\":\"Conservative management of subdiaphragmatic aortic trauma - Cardiovascular Journal of Africa\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cvja.co.za\/journal\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-10-02T13:16:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cvja.co.za\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/6bf8a30a039e93fd8112db707affb920\"},\"description\":\"Traumatic rupture of the thoracic aorta is most frequently caused by rapid deceleration during road traffic accidents, with the aortic isthmus representing the most common site of injury. 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