CASE REPORT   Open access

Italian Journal of Emergency Medicine 2020 December;9(3):145-8

DOI: 10.23736/S2532-1285.20.00042-7

Copyright © 2020 THE AUTHORS

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language: English

A patient with acute aortic dissection presenting to the Emergency Department with severe pain and no findings on physical examination: a potentially misleading picture

Gavino COSSU ¹ ✉, Daniela TREBBI ², Laura VOCCIA ³

¹ Emergency Department, Tarquinia Hospital, ASL Viterbo, Tarquinia, Viterbo, Italy; ² Emergency Department, Tarquinia Hospital, ASL Viterbo, Tarquinia, Viterbo, Italy; ³ Department of Radiology, Tarquinia Hospital, ASL Viterbo, Tarquinia, Viterbo, Italy

Acute dissection of the aorta is a potentially catastrophic emergency that mandates prompt recognition and expeditious treatment. Diagnosis can be extremely difficult when clinical presentation is atypical, especially if symptoms and signs are subtle or mimic other disorders. In this study we reported a case of acute aortic dissection in a patient presenting to our Emergency Department with severe low back pain and no findings on physical examination.

KEY WORDS: Physical examination; Aneurysm, dissecting; Tomography, X-ray computed