The ascending aorta and arch in the sights of transcatheter therapy: A time for reappraisal.

The ascending aorta and arch have until recently been one of the last bastions of cardiovascular surgery, where life-threatening diseases impose the need for prompt correction and reversal of the impending adverse prognosis. Though a disease where dogmatic recommendations prevail, with upfront surgical intervention in the mind of every physician, type A acute aortic dissection (AAD) is a subject still blurred with many uncertainties. Endovascular intervention for the treatment of type A AAD is rapidly progressing and utilization of transcatheter therapies in the ascending aorta for treating type A AAD has demonstrated technical success in small studies, low early mortality rates, and relatively acceptable aorta-related mortality rates in the long term. These findings strengthen the preponderant role of the endovascular heart surgeon in the management of these procedures, where a combination of wire skill training and surgical proficiency encompassing all technical options available makes it distinctive and resourceful, which provides complete resolution to each multicomponent of this disease in one setting, besides the promptness to repair the inherent complications that will accompany these interventions. Transcatheter procedures and open surgery will coexist side by side and be regarded as complementary rather than competing. Substantial more refinement and technological innovation will be necessary before endovascular repair of type A AAD comes to widespread use, the ideal timespan for cardiovascular surgeons to be involved, and prepared to take on the challenges of leading this new enterprise.