TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - Descending Thoracic Aortic Injuries A1 - Magee, Gregory A. A1 - Demetriades, Demetrios A2 - DuBose, Joseph J. A2 - Teixeira, Pedro G. A2 - Rajani, Ravi R. Y1 - 2023 N1 - T2 - Vascular Injury: Endovascular and Open Surgical Management AB - The majority of descending thoracic aortic injuries occur due to blunt trauma, which in turn are caused by increased aortic pressures and shear stress resulting from a rapid deceleration mechanism. Blunt thoracic aortic injuries most commonly occur from motor vehicle collisions, motorcycle collisions, auto versus pedestrian, or a fall from height.1 It has been estimated that 8000 blunt thoracic aortic injuries occur annually in the United States but the true incidence may be significantly higher since it has been reported that the vast majority of patients with these injuries die at the scene and may never be diagnosed or counted.2 This is evidenced by two autopsy studies which found that a third of all deaths from blunt trauma had blunt thoracic aortic injuries and only 20% of these made it to the hospital alive.3,4 Penetrating injuries to the thoracic aorta are much less common, usually occur from gunshot wounds, and typically present with massive hemothorax and in extremis. Survival to the hospital from penetrating injury to the thoracic aortic is even rarer. SN - PB - McGraw Hill CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/03/28 UR - accesssurgery.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1200599505 ER -