Traumatic Aortic Laceration
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The patient presented to the emergency room following a high speed motor vehicle accident.
The initial portable CXR demonstrated multiple left sided rib fractures, widening of
the mediastinum with loss of the aortic contour, a left apical pleural cap, deviation of
the NG tube to the right, and widening of the right paraspinal line.
The patient was taken for emergent arteriogram which demonstrated a focal outpouching
of the aorta just beyond the arch confirming a traumatic aortic laceration.
