Surgical treatment of Stanford type A dissection for a patient with situs inversus

Situs inversus totalis represents a positional anomaly of fetal development, in which the heart is right sided with inverted atria, along with mirror-imaged malposition of other visceral organs. Situs inversus totalis is frequently associated with concurrent cardiac anomaly of the patient. Therefore, in the event of life-threatening conditions such as acute aortic dissection, effective surgical planning, and optimal management are crucial to survival. We report the rare case of a 66-year-old male with situs inversus totalis and type A aortic dissection who, sustaining abdominal visceral ischemia and paraplegia at the initial presentation, had then undergone successful aortic graft reconstruction. Besides, a brief review of literature is presented with regard to situs inversus and aortic dissection.