Repair of a gigantic ascending aortic pseudoaneurysm -- A challenging approach

Aortic pseudoaneurysms can be a potentially fatal, yet rare, complication of heart surgery. Surgery is indicated but is high risk during sternotomy. Therefore, careful planning is required. We report the case of a 57-year-old patient who underwent heart surgery twice in the past and who presented with an ascending aortic pseudoaneurysm. A successful repair of the pseudoaneurysm was performed under deep hypothermia, left ventricular apical venting, periods of circulatory arrest and endoaortic balloon occlusion. & COPY; 2023 Published by Elsevier Espan & SIM;a, S.L.U. on behalf of Sociedade Portuguesa de Cardiologia. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).