A case of paraplegia that developed 6 years after thoracic endovascular aortic repair for blunt traumatic aortic injury

Case: Thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) is becoming the standard therapy for blunt thoracic aortic injury (BTAI). However, the long-term outcomes of TEVAR for BTAI remain unclear. A 36-year-old man was admitted to our emergency department with dyspnea. He had been involved in a serious traffic accident 6 years earlier, requiring TEVAR for BTAI. Outcome: Acute heart failure and pneumonia were diagnosed on this admission. His respiratory condition improved, but paraplegia developed 10 h after hospitalization. Magnetic resonance imaging showed an intraspinal longitudinal area of signal hyperintensity, and spinal cord infarction was diagnosed. Conclusion: Although the causal relationship between the TEVAR and spinal cord infarction remains unclear, paraplegia as a long-term complication after TEVAR does not appear to have been reported previously, and so represents a potentially important complication.